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HISTORY 



OP 



N O E W I C H , 



CONNECTICUT: 



PBOM ITS POSSESSION BY THE INDIANS, TO THE YEAR 1866. 



BY FRAXCES MANWARING CAULKINS. 



ny of these little things which -we speak of, are little only ia size and name. They 
are full of rich meaninj;. Thev illustrate classes of men and ages of time." 



^..^.•cfCo. 



■°''vv«h»t>a.^°''" 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

1866. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1866, by 

F. ]VI. C^TJLKIjSTS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of 

Connecticut. 



PEESS OF 

CASE, LOCKWOOD AND COMPANY, 
nARTFORD, cosjr. 



PREFACE. 



The History of Norwich, published in 1845, having been for several 
years out of jirint, it seems desirable that the public should be furnished 
with a new and more complete work, — one that shall not only bring the 
course of events to the preseiit time, but shall glean over again the records 
of the past, and be more exhaustive in regard to memorials of former days. 
The first edition may be regarded as a preliminary foray into a district so 
rich in resources, that the invader could not leave it without a deep-seated 
determination to return and more thoroughly explore the field. 

The History has been entirely re-written, and is, in fact, a new work. 
The author has considered it an imperative duty to review all the sources 
of information, and to make it as complete a town history as the materials 
would permit. This led to a considerable delay in the original purpose 
which was to have it appear in 1860, as an offering to the tv/o hundredth 
year. But had it been issued then, it would have closed with the Bi- 
Centennial festival of the town, without any warning of that mighty con- 
vulsion which was about to upheave the country, and the closing chapters 
which display the patriotism, energy and sacrifices of the town in the war 
for the Union, would have been wanting. 

The author is now enabled to speak with more certainty than in the 
former history upon many points, and particularly concerning the ancestors 
of families. Yet the work is designed to be strictly a History, not a col- 
lection of Genealogies. The field was too opulent in narrative materials 
to leave space for following out the family branches of so large a surface, 
and to map out the descendants of a few of the fathei's of the town and 
not of all, would make the work a failure. 

It has been the aim of the writer to avoid profuse laudation, yet to be- 
stow praise where it was due, and invariably to speak of men and meas- 



iv PREFACE. 

ures historically, without straining the records, or ranking probabilities as 
certainties. Mistakes are made and errors propagated in history till they 
become current, and truth is lost by a loose and thoughtless way of para- 
phrasing the original annals, and giving the transcriber's impressions of the 
scene, rather than the strict features of the scene itself. The idea thus 
conveyed is often at variance with the facts. We look at the picture 
through another man's mind and see it colored with the hue of his 
prejudices. 

This history has not been written as a task, but rather for the pleasure 
it gave ; flowers grew and fragrance fi.lled the air, all along the path of 
research. The author can but hope that some few readers — aged and 
lonely people, or those among the stirring and ardent, who turn reverently 
toward the past, the youth perchance whose curiosity is excited to know 
what has been done on this spot in other times, and the far off wanderer 
that cherishes Norwich as his own early home, or the seat of his ances- 
tors — will experience in the perusal some portion of that satisfying 
interest which was felt in the preparation. 

The work is larger than the author had forecasted ; there is more of it 
perhaps than is desirable ; yet the original manuscript has been much 
abridged and condensed to bring it within this compass. 



LIST OF POKTRAITS 



1. Samuel Huntington, LL. D., Gov. of Conn., 1786-1795. 

2. William A. BuckinCxHAm, Gov., 1858-18G6. 

3. Ebenezer Huntington, of the Xlevolutionary Army ; M. C. 
V 4. Ltdia Huntley Sigouknet. 

5. Bela Peck. 

6. Asa Fitch. 

7. Eev. John Tyler, D. D. 

8. William Williams. 

9. Rev. Alvan Bond, D. D. 

10. William C. Gilman. 

11. John Breed. 

12. Henry Strong, LL. D. 

13. LaFayette S. Foster, LL. D., U. S. S. 

14. George L. Perkins. 

15. Jedidiah Huntington. 

16. Marvin Wait, Lieut. 8th C. V. 

Several of these portraits were engraved from recent photogi'aphs. 
That of Mrs. Sigourney is from a painting executed by Alexander, in 
1828. Shfe selected this portrait out of several that had been engraved 
and published at different periods of her life as the one that represented 
her nearest to her Norwich days, and which she preferred to have asso- 
ciated with the history of her native town. 

The engraving of General Ebenezer Huntington is from a miniature 
taken at Philadelphia in 1783. That of Dr. Tyler is from a miniature 
painted by Elkanah Tisdale, of Norwich, probaby about 1802, when Dr. 
Tyler was 60 years of age. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Aboriginal History, 28-47, 104-112. 
\ Academical Institutions, 541-51. 
Addressers of Hutcliinson, 374, 5. 
Africans, slaves and free, 328-31 ; Vote 

against them, 568 ; Sabbath School for 

them, 556. 
Aged citizens in 1842, 586. 
Agreement Ictwcen the Town and its old 

friend Uncas, 261. 
\ Agricultural Society, 644. 

Alarm ! on to Boston, 376 ; Battle of 

Bunker Hill, 383. 
Allyn's Point, 157. 
Alms-house, 574, 5. 
Alphabetical list of early Inhabitanrs, 

222-42. 
Alphabetical list of early Inhabitants in 

Long Society and Preston, 243-54. 
Alphabetical list of early Inhabitants in 

Newent, 256-9. 
"American Hero," — its author, 470. 
Amusements, 331. 
Ancient fishery in the Thames, 18. 
Animals, 296-301. 
Arnold House, — its history, 410. 
Arnold's Letter to Mrs. Gen. Knox, 414. 
Association against illicit trade, 398. 
Attorneys, 518. 
Autographs; Fitch, 137, 150; Mason, 144; 

Lathrop, 217; Birchard, 166; Brewster, 

212; Elderkin, 216; Occom, 269, 465. 

Balloons, or "New Art of Flying," 521. 

Baltic Village, 4.33. 

Banks, 646-9. 

Baptists, 437, 50; 528, 9, 98-501, 61. 

Bass fishery, 18, 353. 

Bean Hill, 21, 78, 322, 61, 5; 510, 11. 

Beans and jjuddings, 78. 

Belligerent edicts, 479, 82, 4, 94, 8. 

Bi-centennial celebration, 587-9. 

Biographical Sketches : Mason, 140 ; Fitch, 
148; other first proprietors, 148-208; 
second class of proprietors, 208-21 ; 
Arnold, 409; Generals Huntington and 
other Revolutionary characters, 415-26; 
Governor Huntington and others after 
the Eevolution, 516-22; several recent 
citizens, 625-33. ( See Index of Names. ) 



Blockade of the Thames in 1814, 561. 

Blue Law, 101. 

Bomb-lance factory, €23. 

Booksellers, 361, 4 ; 514. 

Boston tea-party, 373. 

Boston circular, 366, 73. 

Boswell farm, 540. 

Bounds described, 58, 9. 

Boundary tree, 59, 250, 4. 

Bozrah, 136, 434-8. 

Bozrahville, 194, 437, 616. 

Brewster's voyages to Conn., 211. 

Brewster's Neck, 44, 211, 13. 

Brick corner, 538. 

Bride-brook marriage, 164. 

Bridges, 99, 343-52, 4. 

Burial places : Oldest, 128-32, 144, 202; 
Leffingv.'ell-town, 1 92 ; Episcopal church- 
yard, 458 ; Chelsea Society, 460 ; Lung 
Society, 448 ; Jewett-City, 450 ; Yantic 
Cemetery, 645 ; Indian Cemetery, 585. 

Business at the Landing, 305-12, 638-40. 
(See also Trade, Jilarine Affairs, &c.) 

Business in the town-plot, 3G0-3, 511-15. 

Busmess men of recent date, 638-40. 

Cambridge Platform, 284, 318, 439. 
Candidates for the Ministry: 1st .^ocicty, 

Fitch and Flint, 125; Coit, 127; "VVil- 

lard, 287 ; How, 336. Chelsea Society, 

Curtice and Cleveland, 460 ; Elv and 

Austin, 469. 
Cannon cast and anchors made, 389. 
Carding machines, 449. 
Car factory, 623. 

Casualty at Lathrop's bridge in 1725, 343. 
Catholics, 472, 605. 

Catholic sermon in Cong. Church, 472. 
Centenarians, 218, 50; 578-80. 
Circulating Library, 514. 
Chair of Uncas, 40. 
Chaise and carriage ; one-horse chaise of 

Gov. Trumbull, 325. 
Channel companj^, 5G9. 
Chelsea, East, 25, 302, 539; West, 24, 

263, 538; Plain, or Parade, 2.3, 53.3-5 ; 

Ecclesiastical Society, formerly 6th, now 

2d, 460-72, 552-60. 
Chelsea in Vermont, 503. 



Till 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Chocolate Mills, 371, 608. 

Choirs introduced, 340. 

CKurclies burnt : Chelsea Conj^regational- 
ist, 5,52, 55 ; Town-plot, 526 ; Main 
Street Congregationalist, 529 ; Greene- 
ville Baptist, 529. 

Classes for i-aising soldiers, 396, 9. 

Clerks, Town, 82, 133, 594 ; County, 87 ; 
City, 595. 

Clock and watch-making, 372, 512, 608. 

Comity of Episcopalians and Congrega- 
tionalists, 455. 

Commerce and trade, 288, 303-14, 97; 
475. 

Commissioners, or Justices, 86 ; cases be- 
fore them, 277-81. 

Confiscation of tory property, 371. 

Congregational ordination, 149 ; struggle 
with Presbyterianism, 461. 

Congregational Churches : 1st Church or- 
ganized at Saybrook, 55 ; 2d, or Chelsea, 
460 ; 3d, now extinct, on the Plain, 558 ; 
4th, now od, at Greeneville, 538 ; 5th, 
or Main Street, now 4th, or Broadway 
Congregational, 539. 

Constables for the first 25 years, 83. 

Continental soldiers, 391. 

Contribution for soldiers, 392. 

Contraband trade, 397. 

Controversies : with Preston respecting 
bounds, 271, 94 ; with New London for 
halfshlre, 273 ; Town-plot versus Chel- 
sea, for the courts, 570 ; Gas Compa- 
nies, 573. 

Cork-cutting, 614. 

Corn stalk molasses, 389. 

Cotton manufacture, 446, 9, 50 ; 512, 609 
-16, 19-21. 

Court House, 22, 523. 

Courts, 86, 8 ; 267, 8 ; 273, 4 ; 570 ; trans- 
ferred to the Landing, 572. 

Crows and blackbirds, 55 ; bounties for 
their destruction, 297. 

Cushion and calash, 334, 5. 

Customs of former times, 75, 80, 121, 325, 
33, 517. 

Date of purchase and the price, 57. 

Deacons, 155, 172, 184, 288. 

Death, 73, 336, 58 ; 501 ; by fire, 529. 

Debts of town in 1718, 271. 

Deed of Norwich, 57 ; of Preston, 243, 
255 ; Indian deeds, 261 ; mortgage deed, 
137. 

Deputies, earliest, 84. 

Descriptive sketch, 17-26. 

Disasters at sea from tempest, wreck, pi- 
rates, privateers, tropical fevws, and 
belligerents, 493-502. 

Distrainments, 323, 4. 

Division of the town, 428. 

Divorce case, 205. 

Donation to Boston, 376. 

Druggists, 326, 413, 26 ; 637, 8. 

Durkee's expedition to Wethersfield, 365 ; 
start for Boston, 376. 



Eagleville, 446. 

Early marriages, 177. 

Ecclesiastical difSculties, 284, 318, 461, 
553. 

Elderkin's mills and meeting-houses, 72, 
117,216. 

Emancipation, 229, 61 ; 520 ; proclaimed 
and honored, 677. 

Emigration, 309, 421, 44 ; 503-9 ; 

Episcopal Church, 451-9 ; at Yantic, 605 ; 
at Jewett City, 419; Christ's Church, 
455 ; Trinity, 457 ; at Poquetannock, 
451. 

Epitaphs: Adgate, 129; Mrs. Arnold, 
409; Backus, 160; Baldwin, 163; Bil- 
lings, 500; Bushnell, 215; Calkins, 
172 ; Fitch, 148, 448 ; Gager, 131 ; Gif- 
ford, 176; Griswold, 178; Huntington, 
129, 183; Jewett, 450; Kinney, 564; 
"aged nursing mother," 191 ; " Jenteel 
woman," 191 ; Lathrop, 218, 221 ; Post, 
195; Kude, 250; Smith, 200; Tracy, 
203, 345 ; Governor Trowtrow, 330 ; 
Tyler, 458; Wight, 448; Samuel Uncas, 
587 ; Waterman, 206. 

European trade, 486-92. 

Excise money, 342. 

Exports, 476. 

Extent of the town, 19, 58, 128; of the 
first parish, 128. 

Extracts from Norwich Packet, 358. 

Extraordinary coincidence, 240. 

Falls, 18, 22 ; plunge over, 34, 610. 

Falls Village, 22. 

Family meetings, 645. 

Fast and Covenant extraordinary, 110, 

123. 
Fashions, 75, 7 ; 121, 325, 33-5, 67 ; 520 ; 

change at the Revolution, 335, 67. 
Female Academy, 546. 
Fillmore and the pirate, 229 ; descent of 

Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the 

U. S., 229, 30. 
Fire-lands, 507. 
First-comers, 61. 
First born child and other early births, 73, 

182, 7 ; first born male, 182. 
First incident, 47. 
First houses on the Plain and in Washing- 

ington Street, 532-7. 
First marriages and deaths, 74. 
First military organization, 88. 
First masters of vessels, 303. 
First steam-boats in the Thames, 566. 
First turnpike in U. S., 530. 
Fitchville, 437, 617, 18. 
Fitting out for boarding school, 334. 
Flag before the Revolution, 378 ; of the 

l'8th C. v., 678. 
Flag-raising for the Union, 656. 
Foreigners, 605. 
Franklin, 136, 429-33. 
Franklin-Square, 540. 
Free Academy, 549-51. 
Freemen, 85, 6; 274, 281. 



(JENERAL INDEX 



IX 



French ofBcers visit Norwich, 393, 4. 

French neutrals, 310. 

Freshets, 352-5. 

Fritrht of Mrs. Brewster, 46. 

Fulling mills, 98, 371, 603. 

Golden wecUings, 641. 

Grants lavish and indefinite, 95. 

Grants at the Landing, 303 ; to Owaneco, 

256. 
Grave-stone memorials, 314, 458. (See 

epitaphs.) 
Greeneville, 26, 558,618. 
Green's proclamatioa against Norwich and 

Windham, 377. 

Half-century Ministers, 459. 

Hanover Society, 444. 

Hemp manufacture, 610, 11. 

High prices, 389. 

Hill-top, or Zion's Meeting-house, 21, 119- 

22, 6-9 ; 316. 
Home-lots, 63-9 ; first alienated, 102 ; 

parts that have not been alienated, 65, 

6, 8; 167. 
Horse-jockeys and their cargoes, 478. 
Hour-glass of the pulpit, 283. 
Huguenot exile, 288 ; Huguenot bell, 282. 
Hungry march. 111. 

Imports direct from Europe, 310, 477, 92. 

Impressments, 484, 564. 

Indian fugitives ; great meeting to dispose 

of them, 114, 15. 
Indian deeds, 261 ; forts, 23, 81, 302. 
Indian graves, 30, 73, 263, 585 ; relics, 

263. 
Indian plunge into Yantic Falls, 34. 
Indian raid upon the pioneer settlers, 46 ; 

do. upon Reynolds and Rockwell, 109. 
Indian totems, 264 ; Attawanhood, 53 ; 

Owaneco, 58, 255, 6 ; Uncas, 58, 262. 
Indian village at Pawcatuck destroyed, 

145. 
Inns and Inn-keepers, 100, 331, 360, 512. 
Inoculation, 427, 8. 
Installation ia the open air, 462. 
Instruction to deputies, 369, 95, 9. 
Insurance, 310; companies, 649. 
Invasion ap[)rehcnde(l, 400. 
Inventories, 157, 8, 68, 72, 5, 91 ; 204, 10, 

48, 89 ; 333. 
Irish population, 643. 
Iron works, 389, 606, 12, 53. 

Jail, 273, 547, 72. 
Jewett City, 448. 
Johnson, Vermont, 207. 
July 4th, 1865, 677. 
Justices, 86. 

Killingworth, 176, 8. 

Kinsman, wide range of meaning, 193. 

Labrador tea, 367. 
LaFayette in Norwich, 393. 



Landing-place, 99 ; original condition, "02, 
5 ; first grantees, 303, 4. 

Lathrop Bible, 77 ; Lathrop ballad, 220. 

Law-books and election sermons, 276. 

Lawyers, 160, 518, 630,3. 

Laurel Hill, 25, 575, 6. 

Lebanon, 136, 15), 166. 

Lebanon, N. H., 208, 503. 

LefRngwcIl-town, 192. 

LcthngwcU's staff, l'.)0. 

Letters : Mrs. Arnold to her son Benedict, 
410 ; Arnold to Mrs. Knox, 414 ; Elder- 
kin's petition, 120; Col. McLeilan to 
Major Loffingwell, 400 ; Occom's Well 
and Farewell, 4G5 ; Washington to Col. 
Rogers, 382 ; Taylor love letter, 154. 

Lil)erty Tree, 366, 8, 74, 6. 

Library of a clerical student in 1724, 210. 

Lisbon, 137, 429, 45. 

Litigation, 87. 

Longevity, 188. 

Long Society, 243, 447. 

Lotteries, 347, 50, 2, 63. 

Mackerel, 18. 

Magistrates, 90. 

Manufactures, 367, 9, 71; 446, 9; 504, 

606-24. 
Marine Affairs, early, 306, 10 ; during the 

Revolutionary war, 402-8 ; after the war, 

475, .502, 65, 95 ; 652, 3. 
Mashipaug, or Gardner's Lake, 227. 
Masonry, 524. 
Mason controversy, 266-70. 
Mason versus Richardson, 88. 
Mayors, 625-30. 
Medical Society, 359, 638. 
M. C.'s, 631, 2. 
Meeting Houses, 21, 63, 119, 126, 216, S2 ; 

340, 527, 60, 88 ; 601, 3 ; at West Farms, 

284, 430, 2 ; at Newent, 44(>, 2 ; at Paut- 

ipaug, 433, 8 ; at the Landing, 462, 503, 

6, 9. 
Mer(;hants and merchandise, 100, 310, 14, 

60. 97. 
Merchant's Hotel, 539. 
Methodist, 4-33, 7, 42, 59 ; 602, 3 ; Free 

Church, 603. 
Methodist Chapel swept down the river, 

354. 
Mike-apple, 239. 
Militia, 88, 214, 377, 8, 91 ; 400. 
Mills, 72, 97, 216. 
Mining company, 624. 
Ministers originating in 1st Society, 560. 
Minister's Rates, 124, 288, 323, 41 ; 471. 
Mission School, 557. 
Mission of Occom and Whitaker, 464. 
Missions and Missionaries, 590-3. 
Model substitute, 673. 
Mohegans, their original scat and removal, 

29, 30 ; attemjjts to Christianize them, 

104, 14. 
Monuments : Lady Fenwick, 53 ; Miaa- 

touomoh, 31, 8 ; Uncas, 586. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Nailery, 371, 607, 12. 

Names : Indian, 48 ; Puntanical and local, 

80 ; of families, 281 ; of vessels, 485. 
Nai-ragansctt fort fight, 108, 179. 
Navy ixcruits, 675. 
Necrology of the late war, 680-92. 
Nevveut, between the rivers, first grant, 

120, 197, 256-60, 439-43; its ancient 

Sanctuary, 442. 
New-light excitement, 316-24 ; Whitaker's 

sermon against it, 467. 
News from Lexington and the rush to 

arms, 380. 
News from Bunker Plill and the Sunday 

scene, 383-6. 
Newspapers : Norwich Packet, 357 ; list 

of 18, 580-4. 
Nine half-pay officers, 425. 
Non-importation agreement, 366-70. 
Norwich, why tlms named, 71 ; link con- 
necting it with Norwich in England, 180 ; 

tOAvns growing out of it, 136 ; indicted 

by the Grand Jury for want of a school, 

93 ; inhabitants hungry, 390. 
Norwich Packet, 357-64 ; Courier, 582, 4 ; 

Aurora, 583 : Bulletin, 584. 
Norwich in Vermont and Massachusetts, 

503; inNew York, 507. 
Norwich City, 23, 99, 302, 5 ; its streets, 

buildings, and prominent citizens, 533- 

40 ; incorporated, 625 ; its present limits, 

572. 
Norwich Light Infantry, 6£9. 

Occom Company, 620. 

Oil mill, 606. 

Old age of Dr. Lord, 336, 7. 

Old customs, 75-80, 121, 267, 32.5, 31. 

Old fashioned comforts, 75. 

Otis Library, 577. 

Owaneco's brief for charity, 265 ; quit 

claim to Preston, 255 ; agreement re- 

s])ecting Newent, 226. 
Oxford, N. Y., 507. 

Pachaug, 448. 

Paper currency, old and new tenor, 

293-5. 
Paper-making, 367, 8 ; 607, 13, 19, 20. 
Parsonage land, 63, 277, 342. 
Patent of the town, 134. 
Patriotic and war committees, 367, 74, 96 ; 

563. 
Pautipaug, or 8th Society, 432. 
Peace, 401, 475, 565; Treaty carried to 

France by the Spy, 403. 
Peculiarity in the foundation of the town, 

70. 
Pew-holders at the Landing, 463, 7. 
Philip's war, 105-13 ; only five persons 

killed in Connecticut, 113. 
Physicians, 193, 203, 359, 426, 514, 634-7. 
Plains: in the town plot, 63, 119, 275; 

Chelsea, 23, 63, 263, 307, 533-5 ; Great 

Plain, 31 ; Sachem's, 36, 7. 
Poll-tax condemned, 395, 6. 



Pomfretj 137. 

Poor of the town, 272, 94 ; 574. 

Population, 26, 356, 522 ; of Franklin, 433 ; 

Bozrah, 437 ; Lisbon, 445. 
Poquetannock, 44, 211,453. 
Porto-Rico trade, 653. 
Post-office, 371,593. 
Powder-house blown up, 523. 
Prayer for rain, 116. 
President Adams in Norwich, 513 ; do. 

Jackson, 585. 
Presidential electors, 631. 
Preston, 243, 55 ; 447 ; Plantation act, 

254. 
Preston, N. Y., 507. 
Prisoners from St. Domingo, 525. 
Proprietors : first class, 61 ; 2d class, 68 ; 

surviving in 1702, 135; of Chelsea, 

305-8 ; Long Society and Preston, 243- 

54 ; Newent, 257-60. 
Pumpkins, 79. 

Quinebaug, 17, 49. 

Railroads, 531, 2; 650, 2. 

Rates, 119, 24 ; 341, 455, 472. 

Rattle-snakes : death from their poison, 
128 ; bounties for their destruction, 298. 

Reason for removal, 55, 6. 

Records imperfect, 60, 82, 3, 95, 6. 

Refugees from Boston, 379. 

Regulations prudential and municipal, 
95. 

Remonstrance against the five years' pay 
to officers, 399. 

Revolutionary Sabbath, 657. 

Rivalry between Norwich and New Lo7i- 
don in business, versus harmony in so- 
cial affairs, 79, 90, 273. 

Rogerene episode, 290-2. 

Rolling mill, 612, 24. 

Rustication of an English noblemen, 573. 

Sabbath-day journey, eight miles to meet- 
ing, 439. 

Sabbath School in 1st Society, 527 ; at 
the Landing, 566 ; both Societies, 693. 

Sachems succeeding Uncas, 264, 5. 

Salaries, 341, 557. 

Salem Town House, 457. 

Sampson Fox, or Woollaneag, 297. 

Saw-mills, 97. 

Saj'brook, its early history, 51-4, 141. 

Saybrook platform, 284, 7 ; 318. 

Scarcity of sugar, molasses, salt and wheat, 
389, 90. 

Scenery, 19, 69, 515. 

School fund of the State, 547. 

Schools and school-masters, 92-4, 275, 
541-8 ; consolidated and graded, 548. 

Schooner sent to Ireland in 1732, 306. 

Sealing and whaling, 489. 

Seamen plenty, 481. 

Seating the people and dignifying the seats, 
126. 

Sentry Hill, 65. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



XI 



Separatists, 318-24; reasons for separa- 
tion, 320 ; list of their preachers, 322 ; 
first members, 321. 

Settlements : at Pequot Harbor, now New 
London, 41 ; Brewster's Neck, or Po- 
quetannock, 44, 211-13; Saybrook, 51 ; 
Lebanon, 151; Windham, 136, 159; 
Newark, 181 ; Canterbury and Plain- 
field, 138, 59 ; Preston, 254. 

Seven pillars of the Church, 439, 71. 

Seven expeditions in Philip's war, 112. 

Shad, 17. 

Shantok, 39. 

Sheep-walks, 103, 302-5. 

Shetucket feriy, 97, 204. 

Ships, shipping and ship-building, 303, 
402-8, 475-502, 505, 95-7 ; 653 ; first 
ship-masters, 303-14. 

Showtucket Indians, 115, 256. 

Sign-posts, 102, 274, 307. 

Slavery, 328, 61 ; 520. 

Sleighing, 331. 

Smuggling, 397. 

Society before the Kevolution, 333, 58. 

Soldier farm, 170. 

Soldiers' Aid Society, 676. 

Soldiers for frontier service, 313 ; in the 
war for the Union, 660-80. 

Soldiers and patriots of the Revolution, 
333, 58. 

Sons of Liberty, 374 ; address to them, 
379. 

Sprague, 402, 29, 45 ; 595-7. 

Stage-coach, 368, 507, 13. 

Stamp-act, 365. 

Steam-boats, 566, 7 ; 651. 

Stocking looms, 607. 

Surface and contents of the town, 19. 

Summary of Churches, 605. 

Summary of forces in the war for the 
Union, 675. 

Surrendei-ers, 97, 257 ; great meeting to 
dispose of them, 113-15. 

Surrender of Gen. Lee, 676. 

Survey of Bean Hill and Town Plot, with 
notices of persons and things, 510-22; 
do. of the Plain and Chelsea, 533-40. 

Swine, 98. 

Sympathy with Boston, 373, 6. 

Tape-making, 372. 

Tarring and feathering, no case in Nor- 
wich, 291. 

Taxation, 373, 95. 

Tea-drinking, 366. 

Temperance, 568. 

Thames, its fisheries, 18; its name, 19; 
navigation, 85. 

Thamesville, 25, 653. 

Thanksgiving, 80, 331, 92. 

Tories, 370, 4-6, 9 ; 385-8. 

Tory molasses, 389. 

Tory timber, 405. 

Town House, 273, 4. 

Townsmen, or Sel-ectmcn, the earliest, 84. 



Town Clock, 340, 
Town Plot, 21, 62, 3 ; 510-15. 
Tradition, its uncertainty exemplified, 179. 
Trade: with West Indies, 310, 475-85; 

Europe, 486-90 ; East Indies, 490. 
Trading Cove, 212, 67. 
Train-bands, 89, 377, 8. 
Training day, 214, 378. 
Trespass, cases of, 277, 281. 
Turnpikes, first in U. S., 550. 

Uncas : besieged at Mohegan, and relieved 
by Leffingwell, 41 ; at Niantick, and re- 
lieved by Brewster, 45 ; at Shantok, 
" diverse times," 46 ; his death and char- 
acter, 117, 261, 2. 

Uncas Cemetery and Monument, 585-7. 

Univcrsalism, 324, 472-4, 604 ; books in 
its favor published in Norwich, 474. 

Uprising for the Union, 657-60. 

Vernett grape, 512. 

Veteran Guards, 391 ; veterans of the war 

of 1812, 674. 
Veteran Missionary, 592. 
Volunteers for Boston, 381, 2, 91. 
Votes, 522, 654. 

Wardrobe of a lady in 1757, 333. 

War : Mohegans and Narragansetts, 30- 
47 ; Fi-encli war, 313, 58 ; war of the 
Revolution, 365-401 ; war of the races 
in St. Domingo, 480, 525 ; with Great 
Britain, 561-5, for the Union, 655-692. 

Warwick Patent, 51. 

Washington in Norwich, 393 ; his funeral 
solemnities, 525. 

Waureegun Hotel, 645. 

Waweekus, or Waweequaw's Hill ; two of 
this name, 50, 103, 115, 297, 300, 624 ; 
at the Landing, 23, 81, 452. 

Wears, 101. 

Weddings, 332, 67 ; wedding in Court, 
219; at Windham, 367 ; at New Lon- 
don, 332. 

Wequanock Company, 621. 

West Farms, 136, 188, 429. 

West India trade ; its beginnings, 304, 
310, 475-85. 

Western Reserve, 507, 22, 47. 

Whaling vessels, 490. 

Whitefield in Norwich, 321. 

Wigwams, 62 ; the last in the Town Plot, 
115. 

Wilkesbarre, 421, 504. 

Wilkes and Liberty, 368. 

Williams Park, or Chelsea Plain, 534. 

Winter of gloom, 108. 

Windham, 136, 159, 205, 33. 

Woolen mills, 614, 16. 

Wyoming, 503-6. 

Yantic Village, 20, 615. 
Yantic Cemetery, 645. 



IIISTOEY OF NOKWICH, 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory and Descriptive. 

Norwich, when purchased of the Indians, June 6, 1 650, consisted of 
a tract of wild land nine miles square, in the heart of the Mohegan terri- 
tory, at the head of what was then called Mohegan or Pequot river. This 
ai-ea comprised the present towns of Norwich, Bozrah, Franklin, Lisbon, 
Sprague, and the western border of Griswold and Preston, embracing 
Jewett's City, Long Society, and a part of Poquetannock. 

The Slictacket river flows in a semicircular sweep through the eastern 
portion of this area, receiving the Quinebaug about three miles before it 
reaches the Thames. The Quinebaug comes down with a rapid current 
through a country abounding in hills and valleys, rugged and abrupt, and 
has its channel frequently encumbered with ledges of rock. Its name in 
the Indian tongue signified Long Pond, — the flowing river bearing with it 
in its course the name of its fountain head. It is a larger stream than the 
Shetucket, yet the Indians, after the junction, continued the name of the 
minor branch, and this practice has been very properly retained, since the 
united stream, both in its course and the nature of its current, seems to be 
a continuation of the Shetucket rather than of the Quinebaug. 

The Shetucket was formerly noted for its abundant supply of shad. 
Just below the mouth of the Quinebaug they were caught in April and^ 
May by driving the river. Pens were constructed in the shallow waters, 
and the fishermen, plunging into the river with bushes in their hands, 
drove the fish into these inclosures, where they were caught by hand and 
thrown into baskets. Shad and other fish are still found in the river, but. 
not of the size and flavor of former times, and far less abundant. 

The Yantic is a small romantic stream flowing east and southeast, 

affording by its declination and consequent rapidity various sites for mills 

and maimfacturing establishments. The brooks and rivislcts that swell it 

to the size of a little river conje from Lebanon, Colchester and liozi^h. 

2 



18 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The largest stream issues from Gardner's Lake, the Mashipaug of the 
Indians, a fine sheet of water that forms a corner bound to the three towns 
of Colchester, Bozrah and Montville. 

About a mile before the Yantic meets the vShetucket, while flowing 
south, it suddenly sweeps round in an easterly direction, and coming upon 
a bed of rocks, plunges over a ledge twelve or fifteen feet in height, and 
still descending, works its way amid the heaped up rocky masses, through 
a narrow chasm between perpendicular cliffs to the level basin below. 
These are the well-known Norwich Falls, which at the time of a spring 
flood suddenly swell into sublimity, spanning the river with a sheet of 
foam, and filling the ravine with a heavy roar. 

Escaping from this compression, the river turns again to the south, and 
in a gentle current passes onward to meet the Shetucket, and in their 
union they become the Thames. 

The whole course of the Thames from Norwich to its entrance into 
Long Island Sound is about fourteen miles. It is navigable from its 
mouth to Gale-town village, more than half its length, for vessels drawing 
twenty-five feet of water. Ships of the line might at all times of the tide 
ascend to a distance of nine or ten miles ; but above this the channel is 
impeded by bars and sand-banks, which are frequently changed in their 
position by the spring floods, and aggravated by the sand brought down 
from the Shetucket.* 

The Thames in earlier days was widely known for its lavish abundance 
of fish. The shad, alewives, bass, mackerel, eels, oysters, and lobsters, 
were nowhere to be found in larger quantity or greater perfection. Stur- 
geon and other large fish often wandered into the stream, and have been 
known to leap into a passing boatf 

It was chi'onicled in the Boston News-Letter, just after the great freshet 
of February, 1729, that Norwich river was swarming with fish to such an 
extent that 20,000 bass had been caught within a few days just below the 
Landing. This might have been a larger amount than usual, but every 
year at the breaking up of the ice, there was a great demand, far and near, 
for the striped bass of Norwich river. 

In a newspaper of 1771, it was noticed that 300 barrels of mackerel 
had been taken that season in the river between New London and Nor- 
wich, and that six barrels were filled from the contents of a single seine. 
The river has not entirely lost its character for supplies of fish, but the 
abundance varies with varying seasons, and incessant navigation has had 
its usual effect in scattering the finny tribes. 

* In 1806, the Channel Company, after dredging the river, reported nine feet of 
water at common tide, the whole distance from Norwicli to New London. 

t So recently as May, 1861, a sturgeon (called in the marine vernacular, Albany 
beef,) was caught above Gale's Ferry, which weighed 125 lbs. 



HISTORYOF NORWICH. 19 

It was long before the river attained a fixed and popular name. It was 
called indifferently the Pequot or Mohegan river. At what period or by 
whose suggestion it began to be called the Thames, is uncertain, but the 
name is an easy sequence to that of New London. London on the Thames 
seems to require that the river of New London should be the New Thames, 
and probably the name slid into usage without any definite beginning or 
sponsorship. The aboriginal name has not been recovered, but there 
can be little hesitation in assuming that it was the term which signified 
in the Indian tongue, Great River, — this being the first distinctive name 
applied to it by the English, and the one long in use among the Mohegans. 
In its present dimensions, Norwich covers an area of twenty-six square 
miles. The greatest extent is from Trading Cove brook to Plain Hill, 
which measures seven miles ; its medium breadth is about three. In point 
of scenery it is one of the most picturesque towns in New England, pre- 
senting a pleasing variety of high and low ground, forest and field, rock and 
river. It displays a multiplicity of slopes and side-hills ; every turn brings 
forth a new landscape ; every height oifers a fresh expanse of interesting 
details. It is beautiful in its contrasts and its harmonies ; beautiful beyond 
comparison in its circling streams, its umbrageous parks and rural avenues. 
^ In the pursuits of life, rare combinations of apparently opposing interests 
are here embraced in one municipal bond. Tasteful and costly dwellings, 
the refinements of social life, means of high mental culture, and all the 
aspects of elegant retirement, are found in strange proximity with crowded 
places of business, the bustle and haste of railroads and wharves, and the 
tremulous, unceasing roar and confusion of innumerable mills and machine 
shops. 

There are many points of observation within the limits of the town, 
that may be called mounts of vision. From Plain Hill on the northwest 
boundary the prospect' is broad and noble, expanding almost to vastness 
and sublimity. The Old Parsonage or Meeting-House hill in the Town- 
plot commands a lovely valley warm with hfe, where the quiet abodes of 
man seem in perfect harmony with the works of nature. From Ox-hill, east 
of the Town-plot, there is a view of surpassing beauty, ample and pano- 
ramic, the outlines composed of those interminable woods which are the 
relieving shadows of all American scenery. 

The high grounds in and around Chelsea afford a still greater variety 
of prospect. In addition to woodland grandeur and village beauty, the 
eye takes in the clustered, crowded city, the neighboring villages, and a 
long reach of the river with its diversified banks, combining several dis- 
tinct landscapes in one view. 

In historical interest Norwich holds a prominent position. It has an 
aboriginal as well as an English and American history. The first plant- 
ers were a body of men who displayed much of the genuine old English 



20 HISTORYOPNORWICH. 

character, and left the impress of their origin deeply stamped upon their 
laws and regulations. The two most noted founders of the town. Major 
John Mason and the Rev. James Fitch, were remarkable men, and various 
individuals of more than common note have, first and last, issued from this 
community. In Revolutionary times the inhabitants stood boldly forth in 
resistance to oppression, and were among the first in the country to turn 
their attention to certain manufactures for which the colonies had been 
kept dependent upon Great Britain. In later times it has become still 
more distinguished for the variety, quantity and value of its manufactured 
products. These circumstances, in connection with the diversified scenery, 
have given a name and character to the town, which make it more con- 
spicuous than many others of greater numerical importance. 

In some respects Norwich has been peculiarly favored by Providence. 
It has never been visited by any extraordinary visitation of disease, or 
crushed by any sudden calamity. In common with other parts of the 
coniitrj'^ it has met with financial reverses; it has had periods of depres- 
sion, when improvements ceased and business of all kinds ran to a low 
ebb, throwing it backward in its career for a time, and obliging it to 
retrace the steps to prosperity. But neither war, nor treason, nor famine, 
nor plague, nor whirlwind, nor life-destroying floods, nor widely desolating 
flames, have ever imperiled its welfare. Since the Nine-miles-square was 
bought of the Indians, no embattled foe has been seen in the territory. 
The greatest of outward disasters has been an occasional loss from flood 
or fire ; the destruction of a church, a factory, or dwelling-house, the rup- 
ture of a bridge, or the submerging of a wharf. 

Norwich, beside its central division, the city, consists of several distinct 
portions or villages, stretching like wings along the banks of the Shetucket 
and yantic, with a background of hills and woods, interspersed with farms 
moderately fertile, surrounding the whole area. At the northwest, three 
and a half miles distant from the port, and bordering closely upon Bozrah 
and Franklin, is the village of 

Yantic. 

This section of the town retains its aboriginal name. At the time of 
tlie settlement, the whole district beyond Bean Hill was called Yantic, or 
Yantuck. Strips of meadow land at Yantuck were among the eai-hest 
grants dealt out to the planters, and highly prized as affording native grass 
for their cattle. But the name was probably derived from the river, the 
syllable ticJc, or tuck, usually denoting in the Indian tongue, a stream of 
water. 

The village is wholly of modern growth; built up since 1820, and 
mainly dependent upon the manufacturing interest for its business and 
population. Here in former times were the Backus iron-works; the 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 



21 



Backus mansion, and a range of woods, meadows and rugged heights 
belonging to the Backus family. Beyond these were the West Farms 
and the Hyde tavern. Various branches of the Backus family, scattered 
over the Union, look back to this place for their ancestors. 

Yantic is also the birth-place of the late Joseph Otis, to whom Norwich 
is indebted for its public library. His father wrought in these old iron- 
works, and his boyhood was spent in this secluded hamlet. It was here 
that he acquired habits of industry and perseverance, and what education 
he had, was obtained at the Bean Hill school. 

Bean Hill, in the early days of the settlement, was the northwestern 
limit of the town-plot. No house-lots were originally laid out beyond the 
point where the river ci'osses the main street. The platform of the hill, 
wisely left open for jiublic use, was then probably covei*ed with forest 
trees. It is still shaded in part by a fine old elm, the successor of one of 
great size and symmetry, which, according to tradition, was verging toward 
decay when the settlement commenced. Under the shadow of this elm 
dynasty, in foi'mer times when Bean Hill was noted for its business and 
gaiety, tables were spread, speeches made, and sermons preached. Here 
neighbors gathered to hear the news, and teamsters loitei'ed in the heat of 
the day. 

The Toum-plot, the oldest part of Norwich, originally consisted of one 
long, irregular street, winding ai'ound the hills, and following the course of 
the Yantic. It retains still the same outline, with but little variation from 
its first laying out. The streets, the house-lots, the garden-plots, are the 
same, and in many places the old first-built walls and fences remain. 
Near the center is an open square or plain, hedged in on the north by a 
range of high ground, rocky and precipitous. In the early days of the 
settlement, on the summit of this hill, towering over the plain, stood the 
venerated House of Worship, for many years the only public gathering- 
place for a Christian assembly in the Nine-miles-square. The neighbor- 
ing heights were doubtless crowned with woods, and the rocks, now so 
bare, decked witli a luxuriant growth of moss-tufts and creepers. How 
beautiful the ascent to this Mount Zion ! — the venerable Mr. Fitch leading 
the way, and his pilgrim followers, old and young, singly or in groups, 
scattered along the pathway and gathering at the sacred porch. 

At the end of the first century from the settlement, the church, no 
longer necessary as a look-out post of the town, came down from the hiil, 
and took its position at the corner of the Green, where it now stands. 

This Plain, or Green, was the place where trades, merchandize, public 
business, military exercises, shows, sports, festivals, and the general enter- 
prize of the town, found a center. The County Jail stood on the north 
side at the foot of the hill ; the Court-House was in the open area ; the 
Post-Olhce not far from the meeting-house ; two printing-offices, within a 



22 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



stone's throw at the west, and taverns, schools and shops aUei-nating with 
private dwellings around the border. 

The Court-House in 1798 was removed to the site once occupied by the 
dwelling of Capt. John Mason, (the first house built in Norwich,) where 
it now stands, and since the transfer of the courts to Chelsea, has been 
used for a school-house. Trade, noise, bustle and gaiety have left the 
precincts ; the taverns are closed, and the peace and quiet of the Happy 
Valley seem to have obtained undisturbed possession of this charming 
plain. 

Yet the gei-ras of mental and moral power are quick with life beneath 
the calm green of these quiet scenes. Character draws strength and elas- 
ticity from the soil. From this nucleus issue forth bright spirits, one after 
another, who take positions east or west and radiate light through other 
spheres. Latent fire is at work in the heart of a society from which pro- 
ceed such young men as Herr Driesbach, the lion-tamer ;* Aaron S. Ste- 
phens, the unfortunate participator in the measures of John Brown ; Ed- 
ward Harland, a brigadier-general at the age of twenty-five ; merchants 
for other cities, ministers for many pulpits, and patriot soldiers to die for 
the Union. 

Honor to the old Town-plot. It is still worthy of its founders, the 
Masons, the Fitches, the Huntingtons, Hydes, Tracys, Leifingwells and 
Lathrops of the ancient settlement. 

The Falls Village lies in a hollow bend of the Yantic, just where it 
rushes over the rocks through a winding channel into the cove leading to 
the Thames. It is wholly of manufacturing origin, and with the exception 
of an old mill-seat, and a dwelling-house built by Elijah Lathrop, is the 
growth of the last half century. 

The Water-Fall at this place was formei-ly regarded as one of the most 
interesting natural curiosities in this part of the country. So mucli of the 
stream has been diverted from its original headlong course over the para- 
pet of rocks, for mechanical uses, that the description given of the cataract 
sixty years ago seems exaggerated. It is only at the spring floods, when 
the swollen river comes roaring through the chasm, filling the channel 
from side to side, that we can realize the old picturesque grandeur of the 
scene. 

It then becomes easy for the imagination to re-people the landscape with 
savao-e combatants, and to discern amid the noise of the falling water, dis- 
tant echoes of the war-whoop. The perpendicular cliff that walls the 
chasm suggests the old tradition, and the Lidian tragedy seems again acted 
before us. The panting Narragansetts come suddenly amid the thick 

* Samuel, son of Consider Sterry, is supposed to be identical with this hero of the 
hippodrome, — Herr Driesbach being the name assumed when he became a circus actor. 



HISTOEYOFNORWICH. 23 

woods upon the edge of the precipice, and plunge, or are driven by their 
victorious pursuers, over the battlements upon the pointed ]-ocks below. 

Chelsea Plain in its whole extent from the range of hills by which it is 
circumscribed on the east, to the brink of No-man's Acre, is without rocks, 
and resembles an alluvial formation, or the bed of a lake. GraveT and 
rounded stones, differing in their character from the gneiss and hornblende 
of the neighboring heights, are found a few feet below the surface. The 
form of the land in its descent toward the river, the clefts in the banks, 
and various peculiar configurations, suggest the idea of some violent force 
exerted in past ages, such as the rush of retiring waters and the fitful 
sweep of an eddy.* 

This Plain is a very beautiful part of Norwich. Here is the Free 
Academy, a magnificent building planted in the midst of ample space, 
with a romantic woodland for its background, — tlie broad and open Park, 
— the Uncas Monument, overshadowed with almost se[)ulchral gloom, — 
a small but tasteful church, — the Yantic Cemetery, already rich in its 
memorials of departed worth, and continually amassing saci'ed treasures, — 
many elegant private mansions, gracefully varied in age, style and posi- 
tion, and evei'ywhere groups and columns of towering, interlacing trees. 

It is on this plain that we may with some degree of probability fix the 
seat of an Indian sachem and a village of wigwams prior to the English 
settlements. The Yantic cove below, we may assume, was their canoe- 
place, for like other savages they would natui-ally congregate at the foot of 
a waterfall. Near at hand is the ravine by which they ascended to the 
plain, where stood their matted tents and corn-fields. Waweekus Hill, the 
rock-browed head of Norwich, looking down the river and commanding 
the entrance to the streams on either side, was their watch-post and place 
of refuge. This we may infer from its ancient name of Foi't Hill. They 
have, moreover, left arrow-heads and stone pestles embedded in the soil, 
and their i-oyal burying-ground on the brink of the upland, to attest theii' 
residence and identify their abonginal character. 

Tlie City, or central part of Norwich, encompasses the meeting-place 
of the Yantic, the Shetucket, and the Thames, spreading over both sides 
of each of these three rivers. It is an assemblage of side-hills and hill- 
tops, with rivers gliding at their feet. The upper streets are declivities, 
and the buildings lie in tiers one above anothei". In ascending tlie river 
by night, the houses on the hill seem suspended in the air. The lower 
streets have either been won from the water, or blasted out of the rock. 
The bold projections along the border line have been moulded into foun- 
dations for wharves, offices, and freight-houses. Central Wharf, a stupen- 
dous platform covered with shops, factories, and machinery of various kinds, 

* The elevation of the Plain above the level of Shetucket and Main streets, at theii" 
iuterseetion, according to an old measurement of surveyors, was 78 feet. 



24 



HISTORY OF NOEWICH 



and affording facilities for an extensive trade in coal and lumber, has been 
wholly created, and a railway laid along the semicircular border of the 
promontory forms a connecting link between the railroads to Amherst and 
to Worcester, which run from hence northwest and northeast, leaving 
Norwich between them at their point of junction. 

In this part of Norwich since 1835 the advance in the style of build- 
ings, both public and private, has been surprisingly rapid, — almost like 
the changes of imagery in an enchanter's mirror. Churches, banks, — and 
among the most recent, the noble bank building in Shetucket street, stand- 
ing upon the brink of a ledge of rock, with the narrow, dark river far 
down in its rear, — mercantile blocks, armories and machine-shops, school- 
houses of grand proportion and finished detail, the Waureegan Hotel, the 
Otis Library, Breed Hall, one after another, have taken their places in 
the scene. Elegant mansions, in all the various styles of cottage, city, 
country and castellated architecture, erected at a cost varying from five to 
forty thousand dollars, and collecting around them groves and gardens of 
exquisite beauty, rise along the streets and extend over the hills. So 
great are the ti'ansfbrmations, that absentees of fifteen or twenty years, on 
returning are embarrassed in endeavoring to trace out their former haunts. 
Taste and enterprise, led on by prosperity, are in continual operation, 
creating the new, remodeling the old, transforming the rude into the ele- 
gant, the barren cliff to a verdant terrace, and gullies of sand and gravel 
to gardens of fruitfulness and bloom. 

West Chelsea was formerly noted for ship building. Not only common 
trading vessels, but ships of considerable size, were constructed here 
under disadvantages Avhich erjergy and perseverance only could have con- 
quered, the narrowness of the river making it necessary to launch them 
side-ways or diagonally. 

Oak-spring hill. Baptist hill and Mount Pleasant are names by which 
this high district has been locally known at different periods. Here, 
under the shade of venerable trees, far above the level of the river, above 
the line of numberless chimneys and tree-tops, springs of pure water that 
have never been known to fail, rise to the surface of the earth. For 
many years one of these perpetual fountains has supplied a portion of the 
city with water. 

This hill was in former times covered with a stately forest, and until a 
recent period all the roads and pathways on this side of the river led 
through woods and thickets. Streets and houses are now extending over 
the heights, and the waste lands are rapidly passing into gardens and cul- 
tivated fields. 

Below West Chelsea, on the river, is a place formerly known as a re- 
treat for fishing boats, with here and there a farm house in sight upon the 
bank, and called Bushnell's Cove. A distillery was an old occupant of 



HISTOEYOPNORWICH. 25 

the Point, and a house near by was at one time kept as a tavern. Since 
the year 1850, an entire change has been effected in this locahty, and the 
present appearance is no more Hke the former than if a new creation had 
taken place. Mitchell's iron works, Wetmore's ship-yard, and the com- 
mercial enterprise of J. IM. Huntington & Co., have transformed this 
secluded station into a thriving village, which lies within the city bounds, 
but is distinguished by the a[)propriate name of 

Thamesville. 

A vast amount of labor has here been expended in leveling, grading 
and building. The high banks have been broken up and gradually de- 
posited at the river side, changing the marshes and shallows into acres of 
solid ground. By perseverance and capital, overcoming obstacles, ample 
space and facilities for business have been obtained, and the village now 
exhibits several handsome dwelling houses, a steam engine and machine 
factory, a well prepared ship-yard, convenient wharfage and a quay, with 
all the necessary appurtenances of workshops, warehouses and tenements. 

On the east side of the river, below the mouth of the Shetucket, is the 
wild and romantic district of Laurel Hill, one of the youngest of the 
Norwich group of villages. So late as 1850, this bank of the river re- 
mained chiefly in its natural condition, abrupt, rocky and uncultivated, 
with a single farm-house in an extent of two or three miles. 

It has had no magic touch from the wand of manufacture, no mines or 
marble quarries lurk beneath the surface ; it stands apart from the clash 
of mills and machinery, but under the management of taste and enterprise, 
pleasant homes and fertile gardens have risen along the rugged i>lopes, 
bursting out one after another, like the old laurel blossoms, for which the 
place was noted, at the call of June. The first dwelling house was erected 
in 1852. It numbers at the present time, (18G5,) 45 houses; has 70 
scholars for the public schools, and sends 50 voters to the polls. 

East Chelsea was originally the least desirable of all the suburbs of the 
city. The river swept over it at every freshet, and receding, left it cov- 
ered with the stones and rubbish that came down imbedded in the ice- 
blocks, or torn up by the impetuosity of the current. Hence, probably, 
it obtained the descriptive name of Swallow-all. Franklin street was a 
rugged lane winding into the woods between Stony Brook and Burial 
Ground hill. The brook itself, alternately a quiet stream and a roaring 
torrent, having received its petty branches and its tributary pond, flowed 
into the Shetucket, crossing Main street in the line of Franklin Square. 

The bi'ook and the massive stones that covered it, are now fiir beneath 
the surface of the street, the soil having accumulated above to the depth 
of several feet. Churches, handsome houses, mercantile blocks, a railroad 
depot, and various forms of business, occupy the once neglected surface. 

Franklin street, elevated, widened, lengthened, and lined with buildings 



26 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



on either side, has become a busy tliorouglifare and the seat of several 
large manufacturing establishments ; among them are the gigantic works 
of the Norwich Arms Company, which, during the pressure of the war, 
had the workmen at command, and the machinery in operation, capable 
of turning out 400 finished muskets per day.* 

Greeneville, on the Shetucket, was indebted, in its origin, to the foresight 
and well-directed enterprise of William C. Gilman and William P. Greene. 
The former made the first purchase ; the latter followed out and comjdeted 
the grand design, and is imperishably connected with its name. 

It was founded upon manufacturing privileges. Dams, canals and fac- 
tories were here coeval with dwelling houses and families. A first speci- 
men of each sate down together in 1829, and these rapidly grew into a 
community. A school was established in 1832, a Congregational church 
organized January 1st, 1833, and a house for worship completed in 1835. 

Greeneville affords a striking illustration of the success with which, 
under the influence of wise regulations and liberal patronage, an assem- 
blage of various nations and pursuits may be wrought into a prosperous 
and well-ordered community. This village has now several large facto- 
ries, with the great Shetucket Cotton Mill and the mammoth Chelsea 
paper-mill at their head ; three churches, an excellent system of graded 
schools, and a population of 3,000 or more, gathered from five different 
nations, — ranking them in the order of numbers, — Irish, American, Scotch, 
English and German. So far they have worked well together, and give 
promise of soon becoming a homogeneous community. 

This cursory survey of Norwich is sufficient to show how richly she 
has been endowed by nature with sources of prosperity and with what 
happy results these facilities have been thus far improved. 

In available sites for manufactories the town is peculiarly favored. 

It is surrounded by a farming region, fertile, extensive and well culti- 
vated, which makes it advantageous as an agricultural market. 

Its situation at the head of a navigable river gives it facilities for fur- 
nishing supplies to a widely extended back country and to the numerous 
mill seats and villages that occupy the tributary streams. 

POPULATION. 

1756—5,540, of whom 223 were colored. 
1774_7^3oi. 1,024 families; 901 dwelling-houses. 
1779—7,187. 



1780— G, 541. 

1790—3,284. 
1800—3,476. 



AFTER THE DIVISION OF THE TOWN. 



* Sec article "Norwich Armories," in Harper's Magazine for March, 1864. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 27 

Census taken by Benjamin Tracy at the close of the year 1810 : 
Free white males, 1,554 

Free white females, 1 ,807 

Free colored persons, 1 52 

S hives, 12 



Total, 


3,525 


1820—3,624, 




1830—5,179. 




1840 — Free white males, 


3,254 


Free white females, 


3,633 


Colored persons. 


352 


Total, 


7,239 


1850—10,205. 





1860—14,058, of whom 361 were colored. 

According to the Grand List of 1864, Norwich has 1727 dwelling-houses; 267 stores ; 
41 manufactories ; 758 horses; 533 carriages ; 613 time-keepers. 

Total value of property, $;i 6,094,637 ; of taxable property, $10,649,619. 

Total number of polls registered, 1764 ; military exempts, 47 ; firemen, 296 ; other 
exempts, 107 : total taxable polls, 1314. 

It has seven banks, besides one for savings and a savings society that has been forty 
years in operation ; four insurance companies ; seventeen churches ; eight school dis- 
tricts ; thirty-nine public schools ; and a Free Academy, open for an academical educa- 
tion to all the children of the town, free of expense, and without regard to sex or con- 
dition. 

By the old stage route, from Norwich to New York is 128 miles ; to New Haven, 58 ; 
to Boston, 80; to Hartford, 38, and about the same distance to Providence. 

By the Norwich & Worcester Railroad, Boston is reached in four hours. By the 
Northern Railroad to New London, and the New Haven Railroad, New York is reached 
in six hours ; by the Northern Railroad and the steamboat hue connected with it, in 
eight or nine houi's. 

Latitude, 41°, .33', N. 

Longitude, 72°, 7', W. of Greenwich, 

MEASUREMENTS. 

Line between Norwich and Lisbon, by the Shetucket river, 4 miles and a few rods. 

Between Norwich and Franklin, 5.^ miles. 

Between Norwich and Bozrah, 4| miles. 

Between Norwich and Montville, by Trading Cove and brook, 3^ miles. 

From Trading Cove to the mouth of the Shetucket, 2 miles, 100 rods. 

From thence by the river to Lathrop's bridge, 3 miles, 80 rods. 

From 1st Society Court House to Lathrop's bridge, a little over 3 miles. 

" " " to Lovett's bridge, 4 miles. 

" " " over Plain Hill to Franklin line, 4;^ miles. 

" " " to Trading Cove, (New London road,) 3| miles. 

" " " to Wharf bridge, 2 miles. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Aboriginal History of the Nine-Miles-Squaee. 

When the English began their settlements in the eastern part of Con- 
necticut, they found the Mohegans claiming and holding by a kind of wan- 
dering possession, a large area back from the sea-coast, and extending far 
into the interior of the country. How was their title obtained ? Not by 
inheritance or conquest, but apparently by stepping into vacancy and occu- 
pying the seats of an extinct or fugitive race. This appears to have been 
the origin of the right which Uncas had to the Nine-miles -square, and to 
several other fair towns, the ownership of which is derived from him and 
his sons. In point of fact, this title could not be fiiirly challenged ; for as 
aborigines and as present sole occupants, their right was paramount to all 
others. The English had no claim beyond the line of their conquests on 
the sea-board. 

But who were the antecedent inhabitants of the Nine-miles-square ? 
What people had fished in its streams, swept over it with their hunting 
bands, and built their huts upon its area, not only before Mason and Fitch 
set up their pillars in the wilderness, but before Uncas became a sachem 
and his people a tribe ? On this point no certainty has been obtained. 
The Pequots were the earliest children of the soil, of whom we have 
any knowledge. Beyond the Pequots we recede into darkness and ob- 
livion. 

A committee appointed by the Commissioners of the United Colonies 
to inquire into the claims of Uncas to the Pequot territory, made a report 
in 1663, which throws some light on the ancient condition of that tract of 
land which is now Norwich. They had consulted, they say, "old and 
creditable chiefs," and the testimony obtained goes a step beyond the 
Pequot war, and gives us a starting-point for our history. 

" They jointly affirm that Uncas had at first but little land and very few men, inso- 
much he could not make a hunt, but always hunted by order from other Sachems, and 
in their companies ; which Sachems, being five brothers, lived at a place called by the 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 29 

Indians, Sondahqne,* at or near the place where Major Mason now liveth, [t. e., Nor- 
wich,] vv ho were the sons of the great Pequot Sachem's sister, and so became very 
great Sacliems, and had their bounds very large, extending their bounds by Connecti- 
cut path.t almost to Connecticut4 and eastward meeting with the bounds of Pasquat- 
tuck, (wlio lived at Showtuckett, being a Pequot Sachem whose bounds extended 
eastward and took in Pachaug ;§) the which five Sachems being brothers grew so great 
and so proud that upon hunting they quarrelled with the Pequots, at which the great 
Pequot [Sachem] being angry with them, made war upon them and conquered them 
and tlieir country, and they all fled into Narragansett country, (leaving their country 
and men unto the Pequot Sachem,) from wlience they never returned, but there died. 
So that Indians affirm all their lands and Woncas's too, according to their customs and 
manners were Pequot lands, being by them conquered, and now are the true right of 
the English, they having conciuered the Pequots. "|| 

According to this testimony, the Nine-miles-square, at a period not long 
anterior to the arrival of the English, was inhabited by bands of Indians 
whose riders were allied to the royal Pequot race, and probably they and 
their people were of Pequot origin. 

Nothing more is known of these children of the soil. They were doubt- 
less few in number, and passed away like dry leaves of the forest, swept 
off by winds, or beaten into the earth by wintry storms. Perhaps the 
report of the aged chiefs was correct, that they withdrew into Narragan- 
sett and coalesced with its tribes. The territory that had been occupied 
by these five brothers, however, again rises to the view in 1G43. It was 
then claimed by Uncas, the Mohegan chief, and bore the general name of 
Mohegan. 

Various historical notices tend to show that the Mohegans were origin- 
ally a river tribe, possessing lands on the Connecticut, in what are now 
the towns of East Hartford and East Windsor. The father of Uncas 
having married into the royal Pequot family, acquired by this alliance a 
right to a certain trdct of land on the west side of Pequot river, since 
known as Mohegan proper, and here fixed the principal seat of his 
sachemdom. The chiefs, consulted by the committee before mentioned, 
testilii'd tliat Uncas was " akin to the Pequots," and that he received this 
tribal seat by inheritance from his father. Thus, when the five sachems 
were driven from their possessions in the neighborhood, the Mohegans 
stood ready to spread their hunting and fishing claims over tlie relinquished 
country and include it in their domain. 

* Soudahque: the name comes to us through several copyists in this form. It may 
have been identical with Souduck, a variation of Sliowtuck, Showtuckct. It has been 
suggested also that the word was originally written Yontahque, a name of which our 
modern Yantic would be the representative. 

t The road to Hartford. 

t The three towns of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor then constitu'ed Connect- 
icut. 

^ Showtuckct and Pachaug are now Lisbon and Griswold. 

II Conn. Col. Rec, 3 :479. 



30 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The Yantic water-fall appears to have been a flxvorite resort of the 
Mohegans. It was their landing place and their fishing place. It is 
probable that they had wigwams at intervals in the neighborhood, and 
that it became one of their wandering homes. This supposition harmo- 
nizes with the fact that the first English settlers found here a "place of 
Indian Graves" which was venerated by Uncas as the spot where his 
parents and relatives were buried. 

As a tributary chief, Uncas was exceedingly restless and ambitious. 
Five times, the Indians said, he rebelled against his superior, and each 
time was expelled from his possessions, and his followers subjected to the 
sway of the conqueror. But at this extremity, he had always managed, 
by submission and entreaty, to gain the pardon of his liege lord and re- 
cover his inheritance. 

Still another of these rebellious outbreaks occurred about the time that 
the English first settled upon Connecticut river. Uncas being once more 
defeated by Sassacus, retired to the territory claimed by the Mohegans, 
near Windsor, where some of the tribe still remained. This brought him 
into the neighborhood and to the knowledge of the English, and particu- 
larly of Capt. Mason, whom he joined, with seventy Mohegan and river 
Indians, in the famous expedition against the Pequots, in May, 1637. 

The success of this enterprise opened the way for his return to his seat 
upon Pequot river. He was henceforward protected and fostered by the 
English, his claims to large tracts of land allowed, and the number of his 
subjects greatly increased by the captives bestowed upon him, and the 
fugitives that sought liis protection. In the words of other Indians, "the 
English made him high." 

The Narragansetts and Mohegans were rival races ; their sachems jeal- 
ous of each other, and the people ever ready to break out into rancorous 
warfare. The early history of Connecticut is perplexed with accounts of 
their petty quarrels. Our present Norwich was then the Mohegan fron- 
tier, the battle-ground and lurking place of hostile tribes. Among its 
rocks and ravines the scouting parties of the Narragansetts often laid 
their snares or found shelter when pursued ; and here also was the look- 
out post of the Mohegans, when expecting an attack from the foe. 

In 1638, the hostile sachems, Miantonomoh and Uncas, through the 
persuasion or authority of the English, entered into an agreement at 
Hartford, not to make war upon each other without first appealing to the 
English. But mutual dislike and national jealousy were easily inflamed 
into open hostiUty, and neither party, when roused to the conflict, waited 
for the sanction of its neighbors. An open rupture at length took place, 
the immediate cause of which is thus stated by Governor Winthrop of 
Massachusetts, in his journal : 



HISTORYOFNORAVICH. 31 

"Onkus, being provoked by Seqitasson, a sachem of Connecticut, mndc war u])on 
him, and slew divers of his men, and burnt his wij^wams ; whercu]3on Minantunnomoh 
being- his kinsman, took offence against Onkus, and went with near one thousand men 
and set upon Onkus before he couUl be provided for defence, for he iiad not tlieu with 
him above three or four hundred men." 

Other historians, and among them Trumbull, in his History of" Connec- 
ticut, trace the dispute farther back, to an attempt which was made to 
assassinate Uncas by a Pequot, who was suspected to have been incited 
to this act by the Narragansett sachem. Of this, however, no satisfactory 
proof was ever adduced. Miantonomoh indignantly denied the charge, 
and retorted upon Uncas that he had cut his own arm with a flint, and 
then accused the Pequot of wounding him. But whatever might be the 
incident which supplied the spark of ignition, the materials had long been 
gathering, and the flame broke forth in the summer of 1G43. The follow- 
ing account, more miimte than is usually given of this contest, is deduced 
from a careful comparison of the earliest histories, with the traditions of 
the Mohegans. 

Miantonomoh having secretly assembled a force of five or six hundred 
warriors,* marched against the Mohegans. He expected to take them by 
surpi-ise, the season being that in which they were usually busy in their 
cornfields, or engaged in fishing, and he might reasonably anticipate a 
briUiaut victory. But Uncas was a wary chieftain ; his partizans were at 
that very time abroad, and he soon received information of the movements" 
of his enemies. According to tradition the Narragansetts were first dis- 
covered as they were crossing the Shetucket at a fording place, near the 
junction of the Quinnebaug. 

From this point they came streaming onward through the Avoods and 
over the long hill that commands the valley of the Yantic. This was one 
of the common routes from Narragansett to Mohegan, and without doubt, 
Uncas in seasons of peculiar peril kept the path strictly watched. 

Having received information of their ajiproach, he assembled his men 
with great celerity and boldly advanced to meet the foe. 

When he readied what is called the Great Plain, tlu-ee or four miles 
from his principal settlement, and a mile and a half south-west of the 
Yantic, he learned that the Narragansetts had crossed the fords of the 
Yantic, [at Noman's acre,] and were pouring down uj)on him. He im- 
mediately halted, arranged his men on a rising ground, and made them 



*Nine hundred, or one thousand, says Trumbull, and the warriors of Uncas four or 
five hundred. This is an over-estimate, as an inquiry into the cflfcctive force of the 
two tribes will show. Half the number assigned in each case, would probably come 
nearer to the truth. In Mohegan proper, there is no reason to suppose that even two 
hundred warriors could have been found at that time, and though Uncas might com- 
mand the services of several small tributary bands, he could have had no opportunity 
to assemble them for this service. 



32 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

acquainted with a stratagem, the effect of which he was about to prove. 
He had scarcely given his warriors instructions how to act, before the 
Narragansetts appeared on an opposite declivity. Uncas sent forward a 
messenger, desiring a parley with Miantonomoh, which was granted, and 
the two chiefs met on the plain, between their respective armies. Uncas 
then proposed that the fortune of the day should be decided by themselves 
in single combat, and the lives of their warriors spared. His proposition 
was thus expressed : " Let us two fight it out : if you kill me, my men 
shall be yours ; but if I kill you, your men shall be mine." 

Miantonomoh, who seems to have suspected some crafty manoeuvre, in 
this unusual proposition, replied disdainfully, "My men came to fight, and 
they shall fight." Uncas immediately gave a pre-concerted signal to his 
followers, by falling flat upon his face to the ground. They, being all 
prepared with bent bows, instantly discharged a shower of arrows upon 
the enemy, and raising the battle yell, rushed forward with their toma- 
hawks, their chieftain starting up and leading the onset. The Narragan- 
setts, who were carelessly awaiting the result of the conference, and not 
expecting that the Mohegans would venture to fight at all with such infe- 
rior force, were taken by surprise ; and after a short and confused attempt 
at resistance, were put to flight. The fugitives and their pursuers, with 
despairing cries and triumphant shouts, crossed the river at the shallows 
and swept like a whirlwind over the hills, regardless of tangled forests, 
rushing torrents and precipitous ledges of rock. The course of flight and 
pursuit led across the Yantic shoals below Noman's acre, and from thence 
through Norwich, over the high ridge of Ox-hill, toward the well-known 
fords of the Shetucket, above the mouth of the Qninnabaug. 

One of the Mohegan Captains, who was very swift of foot, singled out 
Miantonomoh and pursued him Avith relentless pertinacity. The sachem 
had nearly reached the river, but being, it is said, encumbered and retai'ded 
by a corslet of mail,* his pursuer overtook him, and throwing himself 
against him, impeded his motion. When the chief had recovered himself, 
he repeated the act, continuing thus to obstruct his flight, but not attempt- 
ing to seize him, that Uncas might come up and have the honor of his 
capture. The moment that Uncas touched his shoulder, Miantonomoh 
stopped, and without the least resistance, remained calm and silent. Un- 
cas, surveying him, demanded why he did not speak. "If you had taken 
me," he said, "I would have besought you for my life."t The captive 
chief made no reply, "choosing i-ather to die, than to make supplication 
for his life." | Uncas, giving the Indian whoop of victory, collected his 

* Furnished by Gorton of Rhode IsLxnd. Probably it was only a padded or quilted 
vest to check the force of an Indian arrow. 
tWinthrop 2: 138. Savage's edition, 1853. 
J Hubbard, 451. 



HISTORYOPNORWICH. 38 

men around liim and the strife ceased. The conflict had been short, and 
the pursuit rapid, occupying the shortest si^ace of time in wliich we may 
sup})ose the fleet-footed Indians to liave swept over a distance of five or 
six miles. 

About thirty Narragansetts were slain and many more wounded. 
Among the hitter Avere two of the sons of Canonicus and a brother of 
Miantonomoh. 

We have said above that a Mohegan warrior overtook Miantonomoh in 
his fliglit, impeded liis steps, and materially assisted Uncas in hunting him 
down. According to Winthrop's account, it was two of the flying sachem's 
own men who arrested his course and gave him up to Uncas, hoping thereby 
to obtain favorable terms for themselves ; but the Mohegan sachem, indig- 
nant at their treachery, slew them on the spot. This account is happily 
at variance with other contemporary testimony, which states that the cap- 
ture of the Narragansett chief was secured by a Mohegan, and not by the 
cowardice and treachery of his own companions. The very name of the 
fortunate warrior has been preserved. Mr. Thomas Peters, who was 
shortly afterward a visitor at the fort of Uncas, mentions Tantaquieson as 
the Mohegan captain "who first fingered Miantonomio." Hubbard also, 
in his History, gives the credit of the capture to the same chief.* More- 
over it was this exploit that elevated the name of Tantaquieson, (or Tan- 
taquidgin, as it was pronounced in later days,) and made it an honorable 
one among the Mohegans. His descendants long afterwards, in their visits 
among the neighboring whites, were accustomed to boast of the capture of 
the great Narragansett giant by their ancestor. 

But while it exalted the warrior in the estimation of his own people, it 
pointed him out as the special object of Narragansett vengeance, exposing 
him both to open attack and secret assassination. Various snares were 
laid for him, and both craft and courage employed to accomplish his 
destruction ; but apparently he escaped all designs against his life, and 
died in a quiet way.f 

Traditions of this remarkable contest, embellished probably with various 
legendary additions, have been preserved both by the whites and Indians 
in the neighborhood of the scene. In point of fact, it is the most conspic- 
uous purely Indian fight recorded in the annals of New England. The- 
English had no direct concern in the conflict. It was entirely aboriginal 
in its character and execution. The numbers engaged, the dignity of the 
sachems, the importance of its results, and the romantic incidents in its 
train, combine to enhance the interest of the contest, and to demand for it 
a special prominence in the history of Norwich. Here was the battle- 

* App. to Savage's Winthrop, Vol. 2. Hubbard's New England, 459. 
t One of his grandsons was an estimable deacon of the Mohegan church. 

3 



34 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

ground : the flight, pursuit and capture of the sachem all took place within 
the limits of the present town. 

The sudden rout and extreme terror of the Narragansetts, which fol- 
lowed the first onset of the Mohegans, shows in a strong light the bewil- 
dering influence of panic. Considering the preponderance of their ninn- 
bers, and the confidence with which they advanced to the attack, the 
precipitate, headlong retreat that followed becomes almost ludicrous. If 
we may credit the accounts given by the Mohegans, so great was the 
dismay and alarm of the fugitives, that they seemed bereft of their senses, 
and were driven like frightened sheep through woods and swamps, or 
captured without resistance. Long afterwards some old Mohegans were 
heard to boast of having found in the chase a poor Narragansett struggling 
and panting in the thicket that bordered the river, and so frantic with fear 
and excitement, as to suppose himself in the water, and actually attempt- 
ing to sioim among the bushes. 

It is to this headlong rout that the traditionary legend connected with 
the Falls of the Yantic may with some degree of probability be assigned.* 
One band of the fugitives being turned out of the direct line leading to 
the fords of the Yantic, were chased through woods, and over rocks and 
hills, by the relentless fuiy of their pursuers, and coming upon the river 
where the current was deep and rapid, many of them were driven into it 
headlong, and there slaughtered or drowned. Others, in the rapidity of 
their career, having suddenly reached the high precipice that overliangs 
the cataract, plunged, either unawares or with reckless impetuosity, into 
the abyss beneath, and were dashed upon the rocks, their mangled bodies 
floating down into the calm basin below. 

After the battle, Uncas returned in triumph to his fortress, carrying his 
illustrious captive with him, whom he treated with generous kindness and 
respect. But on the requisition of the English, he conducted him to Hart- 
ford and surrendered him to the custody of the government, consenting to 
be guided in the future disposal of the sachem entirely by their advice. 

The whole affair was laid before the Commissioners of the United Col- 
onies, at their meeting at Boston in September, and the question was there 
debated whether it was just and lawful to put Miantonomoh to death. His 
execution of a Pequot who had testified against him ; his repeated attempts 
upon the life of Uncas by assassination, poison and sorcery ; his turbulence 
"in making war against the Mohegans without a previous appeal to the 
English ; and his inveterate hostility to the whites, to exterminate whom 

* It is difficult to give these old unwTitten tales their proper place in history. The 
autlior formerly assigned a later date to the frightful plunge of the fugitives at the Falls, 
but \vhen all the accompanying circumstances are considered, the legend is found to 
coincide best with the strange panic that prevailed among the Narragansetts at this 
time. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 35 

he was accused of endeavoring to bring about a confederacy of several 
tribes, and of hiring the Mohawks to assist in the deadly w^ork, were the 
arguments urged against him. Nevertheless, the court still liesitated 
whether it would be just to put him to death, and in this dilemma referred 
the matter to ecclesiastical counselors. Five of the principal ministers in 
the colonies were consulted, and these, considering it hazardous to tlie 
peace of the country that the sachem should be released, gave their voice 
in favor of his execution. This decided the question in the affirmative, 
and the Commissioners directed that Uncas should conduct his captive 

" Into the next part of his own government, and there put him to death : provided that 
some discreet and faithful persons of the English accompany them and see the execu- 
tion, for our more full satisfaction." 

Such was the death-warrant of the Narragansett sachem. The result 
is recorded by Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, in his Journal. lie 
states that the Commissioners from Connecticut, on their return to llartr 
ford, sent for Uncas and acquainted him with the decision in regard to his 
captive. He readily undertook the execution of the sentence, and Miau- 
tonomoh was accordingly delivered into his hands. Two Englishmen 
from Hartford were directed to remain with the prisoner as witnesses of 
the deed. Uncas promptly obeyed the directions given. "Winthrop says : 

" Taking Miantonomoh along with him, in the way between Hartford and Windsor, 
(where Onkus hath some men dwell,) Onkus' brother, following after Miantunnoraoh, 
clave his head with an hatchet." 

This slaughter of the Narragansett chief undoubtedly took place on that 
tract of land south of the Podunk which was claimed by Uncas and inhab- 
ited by scattered families under his jurisdiction. The narrative of Win- 
throp is explicit in stating that Uncas led his captive to this district, and 
that he was executed suddenly on the way, probably as soon as they had 
passed the English boundary and entered upon Indian territory. We can 
not doubt that the Commissioners had this special tract in view when they 
directed Uncas to carry his captive into the next part of his own govern- 
ment, and there put him_ to death. Winthrop, who records the event, 
understood, evidently, that the execution took place in this Mohegan 
claim between Hartford and Windsor, that is, the present East Hartford 
and East Windsor, and he probably derived his information from the 
Englishmen that were designated to witness the act and see that it was 
done without torture. We are thus, in a manner, compelled to admit that 
Miantonomoh was executed in some unknown spot, near the old boundary 
line of Hartford and Windsor. 

But TrmnbuU, the worthy historian of Connecticut, yielding to the 
strong current of local tradition, in and around Norwich, assigns a very 
different place for the scene of this tragedy. 



36 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

According to this authority, Uncas conducted his captive to the very 
spot where he had taken him prisoner : that is, to the border of the She- 
tucket river, about forty miles in a southeasterly direction from Hartford, 
and there executed the awful sentence ; a blow upon the head with a 
hatchet by one of the attendants of Uncas dispatching him at a single 
stroke. The historian adds : 

" Uncas cut out a large piece of his shoulder, and ate it in savage triumph. He 
said, It was the sweetest meat he ever ate : it made his heart strong." 

We know that many of the Indian tribes, even those not accounted 
(Cannibals, had the custom of tasting the flesh or blood of a slaughtered 
foe believing that thereby the strength and valor of the deceased was 
infused into their own souls. This part of the tradition is not wholly 
improbable. Whether the chief was slaughtered in the nameless wilds 
above Hartford, or on the banks of the Shetucket, Uncas may have grat- 
ified his revenge and honored a savage practice by tasting the flesh of his 
fallen enemy. The incident, however, rests wholly on tradition, and is 
not countenanced by any thing that we know of the customs and charac- 
ter of the Mohegans. On the contrary, it has the vague and exaggerative 
features of fiction. 

The historian further relates that the Mohegans, by order of Uncas, 
buried the victim at the place of his execution, and erected a great heap 
or pillar upon his grave ; adding that this memorable event gave to the 
place the name of Sachem's Plain. 

This narrative coincides with current tradition. Sachem's Plain is on 
the western bank of the Shetucket, north of the present village of Green- 
ville, and here for a long course of years the monumental heap was to be 
seen, apparently giving solemn evidence of the verity of the statement. 
Nevertheless the Records of the Commissioners, and the Journal of Win- 
throp, being written at the time, and with such manifest attention to minute 
accuracy, must be accepted as more reliable than tradition.* 

And indeed, considering the nature of the route, without reference 
either to history or tradition, it is scarcely credible that Uncas would have 
taken that long journt^y with his manacled captive, through the wilderne>s, 
where the chances of escape or recapture were so imminent, and he might 
reasonably expect his course to be watched and his path ambushed by the 
enemy, when the terms of his engagement could be fulfilled and his em- 
barrassments ended at a much nearer point. For it is evident that the 

* The authority quoted by Trumbull is a manuscript of Eichard Hyde, Esq., (now 
in the Library of Yale College,) which is dated Oct. 9, 1769. It is undoubiedly what 
it claims to be, a faitiiful narrative of the traditions of ancient men in the vicinity ; but 
in the course of 126 years it would be very easy for an error to slide into tradition, 
which should blend the place of the sachem's execution with that of his capture. 



HIStORYOPNORWICH. 37 

Commissioners designed that Miantonomoli should be removed from life 
with expedition, and the phrase, next part of his oion government, used in 
reference to the jurisdiction of Uncas, points to the Mohegan territory on 
the Podunk, and not to the Mohegan territory on the Shetucket.* 

Tliis view of the subject by no means destroys the interest attached to 
the monumental heap, and the commemorative name, Sachem's Plain. 
They were memorials of the capture, if not of the slaughter, of the chief- 
tain. Here the first blow was given, that ended in the bloody execution. 
Here the great Narragansett was arrested in his flight. Here he sate 
upon the stone, and his captors came around with taunts and mockery, and 
shouts of joy and triumph. Here they bound his arms with withs, and 
led him away like a captured lion to Mohegan. 

The heap of stones was doubtless in its origin a Mohegan pile, — a mar- 
tial trophy erected upon the spot where the tribe had been victorious. 
But the place of sacrifice in the woods of Windsor, — the spot where the 
helpless chief received the fatal blow, — was left unmarked and unvisited. 
There, perchance, the carrion fowls fed upon his flesh, and his bones were 
left to bleach and decay. No tradition designates the spot, and it must 
forever remain unknown. 

The rude tumulus on Sachem's Plain, which was at first, perhaps, but 
three or four stones rolled together, grew at last to a memorable heap. 
Being near an Indian route often traveled, it was visited by scouting par- 
ties of different tribes, and additions made to it alike by exultant foes and 
bewailing friends. All true-hearted Narragansetts who passed that way, 
renewed their lamentations at the heap, and cast a few more stones upon 
it, consecrating them with doleful gries and frantic gestures. Tradition, 
therefore, might naturally be drawn into the mistake of supposing this the 
tomb of the chieftain. The English who settled on the tract, seeing this 
artificial mound, this Gilgal or heap of memorial stones reared in the wil- 
derness, and observing that every Mohegan, when he came within sight of 
it, broke into loud exultation and bravado, and every Narragansett uttered 
bis dismal howl of lamentation, while each paused to cast upon it another 
stone of defiance or of honor, would easily credit the report, however vague 
its authority, that here lay the remains of the great Miantonomoli. 

A late citizen of Norwich, N. L. Shipman, Esq., who deceased in 1853, 
at the age of eighty, remembered this tumulus in his youth, — a rude stone 
heap, between two solitary oak trees, about sixteen rods east of the old 
Providence road, and nearly in a line with that part of the river where 
the great dam has been built. 

* In the former edition of this work, the author, swayed by a belief entertained from 
childliood, — a belief current and unquestioned in the neis^bborhood of Norwich, and 
sanctioned by Trumbull and other historians, — expressed a different opinion. It was 
an opinion, however, based upon tradition rather than coeval testimony. Subsequent 
inquiries have led to a different conclusion. 



OO HISTOEYOFNOEWICH. 

At length the owner of the land, who was perhaps ignorant of the 
design of the stones, removed the greater part of them to use in the 
undersetting of a barn he was erecting in the neighborhood. The remain- 
der, in the clearing up of the ground, gradually disappeared. In the 
process of time the old oak trees also vanished, and nothing was left to 
designate the spot where the tlying chieftain yielded to his foe, until the 
4th of July, 1841. At that time a monument was erected, by a few citi- 
zens of Norwich, as nearly upon the site of the old tumulus as could be 
ascertained.* It consists of a block or cube of granite, five feet square at 
the base, placed on a pedestal that raises the whole eight feet above the 
surface, and bearing the simple inscrijition — 

MIANTONOMO. 

1643. 

Tliis is the Sachem's monument. The place where it stands has long 
been known as Sachem's Plain, or Sachem's Point : a small stream which 
here flows into the Shetucket, is Sachem's Brook; and a living spring near 
by, is Sachem's Spring. In fact, the whole neighborhood is overshadowed 
and engraven with the name and fame of the great Narragansett cliief. 

This granite block was dedicated in -the presence of a concourse of 
people, young and old, from the neighborhood, the ceremony being con- 
nected with a festival of children from the village of Greeneville. It was 
consecrated by prayer, and libations of pure water from the Sachem's 
spring, where doubtless he had slaked his thirst and cooled his heated 
brow in his marches through the wilderness. 

Another question may be worthy of some consideration. What was 
the precise date of the execution of Miantonomoh ? 

A note in the Massachusetts Historical Collection says : 

" The Indian Prince was murdered, as appears from Governor AVinthrop's MS. His- 
tory, the 28tli of September, 1643."t 

Winthrop's History, since published, fails to verify this statement, the 
date of the tragedy not being there given. Nevertheless, the time desig- 
nated may be con-ect. 

The Commissioners met at Boston on the 17th of September. It was 
agreed that the proceedings should be kept secret until after the members 
from Hartford and New Haven should return home. Uncas was then to 
be sent for, and the execution committed to his hands. 

* Erected principally through the influence and exertions of Wm. C. Gihnan, Esq. 
To identify the spot, the party relied upon the accuracy of Judge Shipman, who was 
present at the dedication, and rehearsed the traditions connected with the place. 

t Vol. 7 of Series 2, p. 47. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 39 

The Commissioners probably reached Hartford by the 2 2d. Uncas 
might have been summoned so as to arrive on tlie 2Gth or 27th, and the 
execution would naturally follow without unavoidable delay. 

The General Court met at Hartford on the 12th of October, and passed 
a resolve to send eight soldiers to remain a while with Uncas to protect 
him from the anticipated vengeance of the Narragansetts.* The same 
day the message of Pessacus, the brother of Miantonomoh, arrived in 
Boston, avowing his intention to avenge the death of the chief. All these 
dates and attendant circumstances concur in assigning the sachem's death 
to one of the last days of September ; and probably it occurred on the 
28th. 

The sentence of Miantonomoh is one of the most flagrant acts of injust- 
ice and ingratitude that stands recorded against the English settlei'S. He 
had shown many acts of kindness towards the whites ; in all his intercourse 
with them had evinced a noble and magnanimous spirit ; had been the 
uniform friend and assistant of the first settlers of Rhode Island ; and 
only seven years before his death, had received into the bosom of his 
country. Mason and his little band of soldiers from Hartford, and greatly 
assisted them in their conquest of the Pequots. 

The Narragansetts were determined to avenge the death of their chief. 
They were particularly exasperated with Uncas, as he had entered into 
treaty with them for the release of the sachem, and had already received, 
as they averred, a large quantity of wampum in part payment of his ran- 
som. The Mohegans, on their part, denied that any wampum or other 
goods had been received by them, except small parcels which Miantono- 
moh himself had bestowed, as gratuities, upon their captains and counsel- 
ors, or given to " Uncas and his squaw, for preserving his life so long and 
using him courteously during his imprisonment." 

A harrassing and inveterate system of hostility between the two tribes 
ensued. The Narragansetts were double in number to the Mohegans, but 
the latter were shielded by the protecting care of the English, so that a 
balance was preserved between the two nations, otherwise unequal. The 
war was carried on by sudden skirmishes, and a system of scouting and 
ambushment, creating constant alarm and irritation, but yicdding small 
results. 

During the spring of 1045, the Narragansetts invaded the Mohegan 
country with a large force, committed great devastation, and finally drove 
Uncas to his strongest fort and besieged him there. According to tradi- 
tion this fort was on Shantok Point, a rougli projection by the side of the 
Thames, nearly opposite Pocquetannok. The English had assisted Uncas 
in fortifying this spot. There is still a fine spring of water by the bank. 

* Col. Rec. Conn., 1, 96. New Haven also seat six by a resolve of Oct. 14. Col. 
Rec. N. H., p. 110. 



40 . HISTORY OF NOEWICH. 

The position was easily defended, and the Narragansetts had no hope of 
taking it by assault. Many of the women and children had fled to the 
other side of the river, with a part of the canoes, but of the remainder the 
Narragansetts had taken possession, so as to cut off retreat on the water 
side, and thus enclosing them on this point of land, they hoped to subdue 
thgm by ftmiine. How long the siege continued is not known ; but one 
night a messenger dispatched by Uncas left the fort without being discov- 
ered by the besiegers, and creeping along the margin of the river very 
cautiously till without the range of the enemy's scouts, he crossed the 
country with Indian speed, and arrived the next day at Saybrook, the 
nearest English settlement, where he made known the desperate situation 
of the Mohegans. Or perhaps Trumbull's account may be more correct • 
that he fell in with a scouting party from the fort, and communicated to 
them the messag(; with which he was charged by Uncas. 

Measures were immediately taken at Saybrook for the relief of the 
beleaguered sachem. This was before the appointment of Mason to the 
command of the fort, and the supplies sent are supposed to have been for- 
warded by private enterprise. No later investigations either enlarge or 
vary the account given by the venerable historian of Connecticut. 

" Upon this intelligence, one Thomas Leffingwell, an ensign at Saybrooii, an enter- 
prising, bold man, loaded a canoe with beef, corn and pease, and under cover of the 
night paddled from Saybrook into the Thames ; and had the address to get the whole 
into the fort." * 

It is probable that Leffingwell had often been on trading excursions to 
Mohegan, and was well acquainted with Pequot river, and the position of 
Shantok fort. We know in general that the people of Saybrook were in 
the habit of coming into the river to trade with the Indians, and that 
Trading Cove, which afterwards became the southern boundary of Nor- 
wich, was a name bestowed by them long anterior to the settlement. 

A fiinciful legend has in later times been connected with this adventure. 
It would be difficult now to ascertain what degree of truth belongs to it. 
It is said that the expected relief from Saybrook was delayed much longer 
than the hungry and impatient Mohegans had anticipated ; and that each 
night Uncas left the fort and crept along the bank of the river, skulking 
by the water's edge, till he came to a rocky and precipitous point, which 
juts into the stream, a little above Massapeag Cove. Here, under shelter 
of the rock, the sachem remained till nearly day-light, with his sleepless 
eyes upon the river, and his ear intent to catch the lightest sound of a 
falling oar, and it was not till the second or third night of his watch that 

* Trumbull's Conn.: Ch. xi. Leffingwell was not an ensign at that period. He 
was chosen ensign of the train band in Norwich, long aftenvard. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 41 

Leffinfrwell arrived. The ledge of rock on which the pachem sat in his 
midnight watch has since obtained the name of Uncas" Chair. 

No sooner was this timely supply of provisions safely lodged in the for- 
tress, tlian loud shouts of exultation wore uttered by the besieged, to the 
astonishment of the Narragansetts, who were unable to divine the cause 
of this midnight triumph. At the dawn of day, however, the secret was 
disclosed ; the Mohegans elevated a large piece of beef on a pole, and 
thus gave notice of the relief they had obtained. The Narragansetts 
dared not assail either the pei'sons or property of the English, but we can 
readily believe that they beheld the boat lying by the shore with bitter 
feelings of exasperation, and poured out a torrent of threats and invectives 
against its officious owners. That they saw Leffingwell, and knew it was 
he that brought the supplies, is evident from Leffingwell's own testimony, 
as will soon appear. Finding that there was no chance of reducing the 
Mohegans while they were thus supported, the Narragansetts abandoned 
the seige and returned home. 

It may be thought that the year 1G45 is loo early for the date of that 
particular irruption of the Narragansetts from which Uncas was relieved 
by Lefhngwell. The sachem was so often, after the death of Miantono- 
moh, assailed by his enemies, that it is not easy to determine where this 
incident belongs. Trumbull uses the vague phraseology, '■'during the 
wars between Uncas and the Narragansetts" which would apply to any 
year b(;tween 1642 and 16 CO. A later historian of the State places it 
without question in 1657,* but this date can not be sustained. Uncas was 
indeed closely besieged in 1657, but in a fortress that stood near the head 
of Niantick river, west of New London, and the siege was raised not by 
virtue of beef and corn from Saybrook, l)ut by the presence of Lieut. 
Avery, Jonathan Brewster, and otiier inhabitants of New London, who 
hast(^ned to the fort and spread their protecting ^gis over the sachem. 

It might be the safest course to leave the period of this incident indefi- 
nite ; yet there appears to be sufficient historic evidence to justify us in 
assigning it definitely to May or June, 1 645, that being the period when 
the Mohegans were reduced to the greatest extremity. 

It v/as in the year 1645 that the younger Winthrop and his party com- 
menced that settlement in the conquered Pequot territory, which soon 
grew into the town of New London. This was but seven or eight miles 
below the principal fort of Uncas, and it may be fairly inferred that the 
siege, in which the sachem was brought to the verge of destruction by his 
enemies, was before this English settlement had taken the form of a regu- 
lar plantation. Otherwise, Uncas would have been likely to apply for aid 
to his nearer neighbor, Winthrop, instead of sending his scouts to Say- 

*Hollister's Hist. Conn., 1 : 199. 



42 HISTORYOPNORWICH. 

brook for assistance. He would, at least, have informed Mr. Wintlirop of 
his situation, and implored the interference of the English. Moreover, 
the summer of 1645 was a critical period in the history of Uncas. The 
regular meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies was to take 
place in September, but on account of the hostile bearing of the Narra- 
gansetts, and the consequent danger of Uncas, they assembled in an extra 
session at Boston, on the 28th of July. From their proceedings at this 
time, we learn that the Mohegan sachem had already been "divers times 
assaulted in his fort by a great army of the Narrohigansetts." 

In the regular sequence of events, "about or before planting time," 
Tantaqueison, the Mohegan warrior that captured Miantonomoh, was 
assaulted and dangerously wounded by a lurking foe, that crept stealthily 
into his wigwam, as he lay asleep. 

After this, and before the meeting of the Commissioners, in July, the 
Narragansetts "at several times openly invaded Uncas," and the colonies 
of New Haven and Connecticut sent a few soldiers to Mohegan for his 
defence. Again, before the 11th of August, the Commissioners say that 
the enemy have made "a new assault upon Uncas, and have done him 
much hurt." 

In another irruption made by Pessacus, the same year, the force of the 
Narragansetts, when compared Avith that of Uncas, was so overwhelming 
in point of numbers, that it is difficult to understand why the Mohegans 
were not entirely annihilated. Making a show of only forty men at a 
time, they drew the warriox's of Uncas into an ambush, then suddenly 
rising, pursued them with arrows and bullets to the cover of their forts. 
But here the latter rallied, repulsed their assailants, and in the end drove 
them from their territory. 

It was during this season, and while these sanguinary conflicts were 
raging at Mohegan, that Winthroj), with his associate, Mr. Thomas Peters, 
arrived at Pequot hai'bor with a pioneer band, to lay out a plantation and 
make preparations for an immediate settlement. In the midst of their 
work, learning, probably from the feai'-stricken fugitives that came down 
through the forests from Mohegan, that the Nari'agansetts were devasta- 
ting the foir fields of Uncas, they cast aside the woodman's axe and the 
surveyor's chain, and hastened to the assistance of the sachem. 

A letter from Mr. Peters to the elder Winthrop, at Boston, giving a 
brief but spirited description of the condition in which they found the 
Mohegans, has been preserved. 

" I with your son were at Uncus fort where I dressed seventeen men and left plas- 
ters to dresse seventeen more who were wounded in Uncus brother's wigwam before 
we came. Two captains and one common soldier were buried, and since we came 
thence two captains and one common man more are dead also, most of which were 
wounded with bullets. Uncas and his brother told me, the Narragansetts had thirty 
guns which won them the day else they would not care a rush for them. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 43 

They drew Uncus forces out by a wile, of forty appearing only, but one thousand in 
ambush, who pursued Uncus men into tlieir own land where the battle was fought 
vario mnrte, till God put fresh spirit into the Moheagues, and so drave the Narragan- 
setts back again."* 

It is evident that amid the multiplicity of attacks and sieges, and the 
numerous invasions of Mohegan during the long wars of Uncas and the 
Narragansetts, it would be a vain attempt to determine with nice precision 
the time when the adventurous Leffingwell appeared with his boat load of 
nutriment. It tallies best, however, as we have seen, with other historical 
facts to give it a place in this eventful year, and at an early period of the 
campaign, before Winthrop and Peters were well established at New 
London. 

It is probable that Leffingwell was paid for his exploit, as far as expense 
was incurred, in the usual way of Indian traffic, with skins and wampum. 
Trumbull says, " For this service Uncas gave said Leffingwell a deed of 
great part if not the Avhole town of Norwich." There is, however, no 
such deed on record, and no allusion to any such deed in subsequent 
transactions ; nor does it appear afterwards, upon the settlement of the 
town, that Leffingwell received or claimed any larger share than the other 
proprietors. 

In 16G7 he petitioned the General Court to confirm to him a grant of 
land which Uncas had proffered him in recompense for services that he 
had rendered. His petition implies that he had heretofore received no 
special gratuity from the sachem. He says : 

" Its not unknown to him and others what damage in my outward estate I have suf- 
fered by his men, and yet notwithstanding, when he and his people were famishing, 
being besieged by many enemies, I did afford him provition for their relief, although it 
was to the hazard of all my outward comforts, tlie enemy knowing what supply I had 
and did afford liim ; upon these and such like reasons, Uucas hath several times offered 
me some land for my recompense and just satisfaction, and hath expressed the same to 
tlie Major, who is acquainted with the truth of these things, but order requireth me to 
propound the matter to your worshipful consideration, desiring your approbation of the 
way Uncas hath propounded for my satisfaction. "t 

The petition of Leffingwell was considered by the General Court, 
jointly with an application for land by Thomas Tracy, and a grant was 
made to the two of 400 acres, to be laid out on the " east side of Show- 
tuckett river," and ecjually divided between them. The land taken up by 
them in virtue of this grant lay beyond the bounds of Norwich. | 

* Appendix to Savage's Winthrop, Vol. 2. 

t Col. Rec. Conn., 2, 74. 

I .From the fact that Tracy shared with Leffingwell in this grant, the idea originated 
that he had been a partner with him in the relief of Uncas. But the inference is not 
necessary. Tracy was much employed in public affairs, and might obtain the grant in 
recompense for other services. 



44 HISTORYOFNOEWICH. 

This is all that has been found on record concerning the claim and 
compensation of Leffingwell. There is no evidence that he ever obtained 
from Uncas a deed of the town of Norwich, or a promise of it. What 
he did obtain in remuneration for certain services, was granted more than 
twenty years afterwards, and instead of being a sufficiency for a town, it 
was only 200 acres, and not even within the bounds of the Nine-miles- 
square. It was through the influence and agency of Mason, and not of 
Leffingwell, that the cession of Norwich was obtained of the Indian 
sachems. 

For a period of fourteen years after these desperate fights at Mohegan, 
the mutual enmity of the Narragansetts and Mohegans continued without 
abatement, and other Indian tribes of less note, Podunks, Pecomticks, 
Nehanticks, were drawn into the quarrel. The results indeed were tri- 
fling. It was a system of marauding, skulking and assassination, rather 
than of legitimate warfare, but such a state of things rendered it hazard- 
ous for the English to advance the frontier and attempt new settlements 
in tire Indian country. The utmost vigilance, prudence and bravery were 
for several years necessary to defend the points they had already assumed. 

Through all this long succession of disputes and contests, the English of 
Connecticut, though ostensibly neutral, were the favorers and protectors 
of Uncas. Their timely assistance and the dread of their power alone 
prevented him and his tribe from falling a prey to the exasperation of 
their enemies. The plans of the Narragansetts were repeatedly discov- 
ered and their designs defeated by the planters in the neighborhood of the 
Mohegan villages. Mr. Jonathan Brewster had erected a trading-house 
in 1650, at Poquetannock on the east side of the river, opposite the prin- 
cipal settlement of the Mohegans, and in all the subsequent inroads of the 
Narragansetts, and of their allies, the Podunks and other Indians of Con- 
necticut river, he was the constant friend and adviser, though not the open 
ally and defender, of Uncas, the English neutrality forbidding any overt 
act of championship. 

Uncas was on several occasions warned of the approach of his enemies 
by these friendly neighbors. By a concerted signal from the summit of a 
hill, by the firing of a gun, or by shouting across the river, they contrived 
to give him timely notice of impending danger, and prevent him from 
being taken by surprise.* 

* Roger Williams and other planters, east of Pawcatuck river, fiivored the Narra- 
gansetts. A letter from Rhode Island, dated July 4, 1657, observes : "We have at 
this instant a very solemn and serious information from the Narragansett sachems, 
by a chief counsellor of theirs, that they take it ill of some English who live near 
Uncas his fort, for that (as they say) the English by their scouts discover to thcMo- 
hegans the approach of the Narragansetts, and thereby do defeat their designs in war 
against Uncas." 

Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d Series, 7, 81. Potter's Narragansett, p. 54. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 45 

But on the north and west of the Mohegans there were no friendly set- 
tlements, and the Narragansett war parties often came from that quarter, 
skulking tlirough the woods and breaking in upon them with a sudden 
howl. The customary haunts of the Mohegans at Trading Cove, and 
along the river, were rendered so hazardous by exposure to these furious 
irruptions, that at length the wigwams were deserted and the tribe scat- 
tered abroad. Some of them, in groups or families, found temporary 
shelter and concealment in distant woods, but Uncas and the greater part 
of his people retired to Nayantick, (or Niantic,) on the western border of 
New London. This was a fishing station of the tribe, where they often 
encamped during the summer. Here they entrenched themselves in a 
fort, built after tlieir usual mode with logs, stakes and stones, erected a 
few wigwams, and feasted on fish and clams. But the repose was of short 
duration. 

Pessacus of Narragansett could not forget the murder of his brother, 
and was resolute not to bury the hatchet while his great enemy breathed 
the air of heaven. In August, 1 657, he collected his forces for a fresh 
onslaught, and sweeping through Mohegan, came upon Uncas in his new 
entrenchments at Nayantick, and pressed him with a close siege. The 
sachem would probably have been compelled to surrender, had not a body 
of armed men from the neighborhood, headed by Mr. Brewster and Lieut. 
Avery, hastened to his assistance.* They threw themselves into the fort, 
and the besiegers, unwilling to engage in a contest with the English, 
retreated. 

At the next session of the Genei'al Court of Connecticut, Major Mason 
presented a narrative of the beleaguering of Uncas by the Narragansetts 
at Nayantick, and Mr. Brewster was regularly authorized to assist and 
protect the sachem, should he be again molested by his enemies. Tlie 
Commissioners of the United Colonies, however, at their meeting disap- 
proved of this measure, and ordered that henceforth no colony nor indi- 
vidual within their jurisdiction should interfere in any Indian quarrel, 
unless in their own just and necessary defense. 

It is exciting to the imagination to consider how many times in the 
course of these barbarous incursions, the peaceful hills and vales of our 
now populous and hospitable Norwich, which lay directly in the path of 
the invaders, were swept over by rushing bands of grim and stalwart 
warriors, horribly painted for war, brandishing their hatchets and war- 
clubs ; now creeping stealthily as a beast after his prey, and anon rushing 
down to the attack, or fleeing in disordered rout before the pursuer. 

In the year 1659, Uucas was invaded by a combined force of Pecom- 
ticks and Narragansetts. They found him strongly intrenched in his fort 

* Col. Ecc. Conn., 1, 301. Hist. New London, p. 127. 



46 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

at Shantok, opposite Mr. Brewster's trading-house, and having laid waste 
his fields and plundered his wigwams, they departed. 

An incident that occurred at the time of this inroad, was made the sub- 
ject of complaint before the Commissioners. Some of the young warriors, 
having been fired at by an Indian near Mr. Brewster's, crossed the river 
in pursuit of the offender, and chased him into the house and to the very 
feet of " Mistress Brewster," to whom he fled for succor, and slew him 
there, " to her great affrightment." 

For this offence the Narragansetts were amerced by the Commissioners 
in eighty fathoms of wampum. 

In a second irruption of the enemy at a later period of the same year, 
Mr. Brewster was plundered of both corn and goods. The Mohegans fled 
at first, but rallied, and gaining some advantage, obliged their enemies to 
retreat, pursuing them triumphantly into the wilderness. This was prob- 
ably the last battle fought at Mohegan. The long contest was drawing to 
a close. 

The course of our narrative has now brought us to the verge of the 
settlement of Norwich. The soil had been purchased, the deed signed, 
and certain advance parties from Saybrook were exploring the banks of 
the Yantic, making surveys and measurements, and laying out lots for a 
future township at this very period, near the track of this last expedition. 
According to tradition, two of these English surveyors were upon the 
side hill, near the present residence of Daniel W. Coit, Esq., engaged in 
digging gi-ound-nuts to satisfy their hunger, when they heard the noise of 
a tumultuous throng pressing furiously through the fords and wood-paths, 
and the distant shouts of pursuers driving them over the Yantic. 

From this period the alarms of Uucas were at an end ; the English, 
advancing beyond him, manned his frontier and became his bulwark. 
Capt. Mason, his patron and friend, stood ready with arms and influence 
to intercept the blows of his enemies. Stonington also on the eastern 
frontier had become a settled township, and a barrier against the Narra- 
gansetts in that quarter. The providence of God had prepared the way 
for the peaceable settlement of the Saxon race, by permitting for a while 
the deadly passions of the Indians to take their full scope, and make them 
instruments of each other's destruction. The wilderness was thus thinned 
of its obstructions, and prepared to receive the new race of inhabitants. 

Although there does not appear to have been any destructive attack 
upon the Mohegans after 1059, incidental circumstances show that small 
scouting parties occasionally came into the neighborhood, sometimes plun- 
dering and alarming the white settlers as well as the Indians. One such 
hostile skulking party passed through Norwich early in the year 1660,* 

* It was proliably before the 25th of March, at which time the double dating of the year 
ceased, as the occurrence is by one authority assigned to 1659, and by others to 1660. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 47 

and lingering in tlic way, made an attempt upon the life of IMason. The 
incident is thus reported in a document emanating from the General Court 
of Connecticut, dated June 9th, IGGO: 

" Not many weeks now past, wee are by sufficient information certified, tliat one 
night at y° New Plantation at Monheage [Norwich,] some Indians, as will appcare, of 
the Narragansetts, shot 11 bullets into a house of our English there, in hopes, as they 
boasted, to have slaine him whome we have cause to honor, whose safety we cannot 
but take ourselves bound to promote, our Deputy Gov Major Mason."* 

Tlie same fact is mentioned in the Recoi'ds of tlie Commissioners, (with 
some variation in the number of bullets,) as a complaint presented by the 
English, living at a new plantation at Mohegan, viz. : 

" That some Indians did in the dead time of night, shoot eight bullets into an Eng- 
lish house, & fired the same, wherein five Englishmen were asleep. "t 

This was a rough salute for the new settlers, and an appalling specimen 
of the hazards attending their enterprise. The house thus attacked must 
have been that of Major Mason, supposed to have been the first built in 
Norwich. It stood upon a knoll above the river, at the southwest corner 
of the Green, where is now the old Court-House. 

The Narragansetts were summoned by the Court of Commissioners to 
answer for this outrage. The chiefs apologized, saying that the offence 
was committed without their consent or knowledge, and that they counte- 
nanced no such practices. It was decreed, however, that in expiation of 
the insult they should either deliver up the four principal offenders, or pay 
500 fathoms of wampum. 

Of one more, and perhaps the last irruption of Narragansett upon 
Mohegan, a glimpse is obtained from a passage in a letter of Roger Wil- 
liams to the younger Winthrop. Writing from Providence, Sept. 8, 1 GGO, 
he intimates that a party of his barbarous neighbors had just returned 
from an expedition in which nothing had been effected : 

" The Monhiggins would not sallie, and the Nanhiggs would not spoilc the come 
for feare of offending the Englisli ."J 

* Col. Rec. Conn., Vol. 1, App., 577. 

t Hazard's Records of United Colonies. 

t Winthrop Papers iu Mass. Hist. Coll., 3, 10, 41. 



48 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 



INDIAN NAMES. 



Miantonomoh. A standard of authority for the spelling and accentua- 
tion of Indian names would be a great relief to writers, and an acceptable 
contribution to the history and topography of the country. But it is a 
desideratum to which Ave seem as yet scarcely to have made an approxi- 
mation. Hesitation and uncertainty hover over the pen whenever an 
Indian word is to be written or pronounced. And amid the throng of 
doubtful terms, there is no one more variable, and therefore more perplex- 
ing, than the name of Narragansett's greatest sachem. 

The variations of the name are too numerous to quote at large. The 
old authors disagree with one another, and are not consistent in their own 
practice. But the difference of orthography might perhaps be accommo- 
dated to a common standard of sound, if they had given the name its 
proper accent. One of the forms used by Roger Williams, viz., Mianton- 
omi, may be pronounced in three ways, viz. : 

Mi-anto-no-mi. 
Mi-anto-nom-i. 
Mian-ton'-o-mi. 

The first of these forms, with the long o accented, is both sonorous and 
majestic, and if the termination o or oh be adopted, as used by the elder 
Wiuthrop, who usually wrote the name Miantunnomoh, the result is agree- 
able both to the eye and ear. 

The second pronunciation coincides with that considered most authentic 
by J. H. Trumbull, Esq., who, after collating the various authorities, de- 
cides in favor of Me-jinto-nom'-y. 

The third mode, with the accent on the antepenultimate, has been much 
in vogue of late years, and seems to be requii-ed by the orthography used 
by Hubbard in his Indian Wars and New England History, and by Dr. 
Trumbull, — Mian-ton'-imo, with or without a final h. 

But this pronunciation is probably Anglican, and not aboriginal. It is 
entirely irreconcilable with some of the most ancient modes of spelling 
the name ; for instance, that employed by Mr. Thomas Peters in 1 G45 : 

Miantinomio. 

On the Sachem's monument in Greeneville, the inscription is 

MI AN TO NO MO. 

This mode of spelling the name, with the three O's, and the finishing 
letter /«, is adopted in this work. It affords scope for the accent to be 
placed either on the third or fourth syllable. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 49 

Uncos, Occam, Pequof, Niantic. 

Roger Williams for Uncas wrote Okace. Other cotemporary writers 
supply tlie variations Oiikos, Wonkus, Unkus, Uncas. The last form has 
prevailed and driven its rivals from the field. 

When a mode of spelling has become currtr.f, it is undoubtedly wise to 
let it pass on to perpetuity, whether, abstractly considered, it is the best 
form or not. We should perhaps write Unkus, or Onkos, if the name was 
now for the first time to be embodied in letters ; and likewise Aukum, for 
the name of the Moliegan preacher; but Uncas and Occom are time-sanc- 
tioned, and we would therefore leave them as they are. For the same 
reason we use Pequot instead of Pequoadt, and Niantic instead of Nahan- 
tick or Nahanticut. 

Owaneco, son of Uncas. 

This name, as uttered by the Indians, commenced with the whistled W, 
'Wuneco. There is a doubt where the accent should be placed. Oneco 
is a familiar abridgement of the name, and this seems to indicate the 
penidtimate accent, Owane'co. But the modern Mohegans pronounce it 
Owan'eco, which harmonizes with the orthography sometimes found in old 
records, as Awaneca, Oaneca, &c. 

Mohegan. 

There are many forms of this name. Mohiccan is one of the best. 
The tribe is supposed to have been a branch of the Moliiccanni, or Mo- 
hickanders of Hudson river, that had migrated to the banks of the Con- 
necticut long before the Ejiglish settled at Hartford. 

The Indian names were all descriptive and significant. This portion of 
the country having been so recently in their occupation, every distinctive 
object, hill, stream, plain, forest, ledge of rocks, or sweep of river, seems 
to have had an Indian descriptive name. The early settlers being on 
friendly terras with their aboriginal neighbors, caught up and perpetuated 
many of these terms. This accounts for the number of Indian names 
that appear in old deeds and grants, some of which can not now be 
located. 

The aboriginal name of the Thames has not been recovered. In the 
early records it is simply styled the Great River, in distinction from the 
Yantick, or Little River. This being used also in Indian conveyances, it 
may be inferred that the original name was an Indian term signifying 
great or large. 

Quinebaug is litei'ally Long Pond. In a deed of 1G53 it is called " the 
river that comes from Quinabaug," and runs down toward Mohegan. In 
a deed of 1699 this phraseology occurs, " Quinabaug river, alias Aspinook 
river, according to the Indian name." 
4 



50 



HISTOEY OP NOEWICH 



Showtuck, (passing through many variations to Shetucket,) is supposed 
to mean middle river. The determining part of the word, show or shaw, 
is a contraction of nashaw, hetween, or in the middle. The termination et, 
makes it appHcable to the land between the rivers. Perhaps this was the 
original name of Norwich ci!/ The situation is such as the Indians 
would describe hy that word. The Indian settlement in the southern part 
of Lisbon was called Show t et. 

Yantick may have had its origin in Mishontuck, which means a roaring 
or noisy stream. Mishi-yon-tuck, great-noise-river, or loud-voiced-stream. 

3Iashipaug. This is the Indian name of a lake or pond, which was 
the south-western corner boundary of the nine-miles- square. Several 
other sheets of water in New England had the same name. It signifies 
Great Pond. 

Massapeag — the same word in a different dialect — denotes a large cove 
at Mohegan, nearly surrounded by high land. Mr. Brewster in 1657 
wrote the name Massapeack. 

Waioeehis. Two hills in Norwich bore this name : one, a range lying 
west of the town-plot, sometimes called Westward hill, and the other at 
the point where the rivers meet, now covered by the City. The latter 
was often written Weequaw's hill, and the name of both is supposed to be 
derived from Waweequaw, or Waweekus, the brother of Uncas. 

Wequonuh. This name was given to a tract of land north of the town- 
plot, on the Shetucket. The brook which flowed through it bore the same 
name, which was familiarly abbreviated to Quonuk. The word is sup- 
posed to have some relation to wet or marshy land. 

Pautipaug. This is the aboriginal name of a portion of the nine-miles- 
square, now included in the town of Franklin. The word is supposed to 
signify a bay, or cove, setting into the land, or at least to relate in some 
way to water. It is not easy therefore to determine why it should have 
been given to this inland district. 



CHAPTER III. 

Early History of Saybrook; Purchase and Deed of Norwich. 

Saybrook is an old, substantial, euphonious name, interesting from its 
historical associations, and honorable in its derivation. It perpetuates the 
unity of sentiment and partnership in enterprise of two enlightened noble- 
men. Lord Say and Seal and Lord Brook, and the grateful regard of the 
first settlers of the place for these their benefactors. These noblemen, 
with their associates, were the patentees of Connecticut. Their right or 
privilege, technically called a Patent, was purchased of Robert, Earl of 
"Warwick, in 1632, and extended along the New England coast, westward 
of Narragansett river, 120 miles, and "in latitude and breadth to the 
South Sea." The Earl of Warwick was President of the Council of Ply- 
mouth, incorporated by King James the First for the settlement of New 
England, and authorized to dispense grants and patents to othei's. The 
right of the patentees was therefore valid and clear. 

The place of immediate importance in this patent was the Point at the 
mouth of Connecticut river ; and here John Winthrop the younger, acting 
under commission from the patentees, built a fort and commenced a plant- 
ation in 1635 and 1636. The Poquot war followed close upon this estab- 
lishment, and threatened the annihilation of the infant settlement. The 
fort was frequently surrounded by the savages. During one whole win- 
ter, that of 1636-7, it was kept in constant jeopardy like a besieged place. 
Several of the men were slain ; others taken prisoners ; and one, by the 
name of Butterfield, tormented to death. The place was however sus- 
tained by the prudence and bravery of Lieut. Lion Gardiner, the active 
and efficient agent of Winthro}) in building the fort and beginning to cul- 
tivate the ground. 

At the close of the Lidian troubles. Col. George Fenwick, one of the 
patentees, clothed with the authority of the Company, came over to take 
the direction of atfairs, hoping to revive the drooping spirits of the plant- 
ers, and give a fresh impetus to the undertaking. This gentleman arrived 
at New Haven in September, 1 639, in the first European vessel that ever 



52 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

anchored in New Haven harbor.* He was accompanied by his wife, Lady 
Ahcft Botler, the daughter of an English knight.f 

The settlement now began to be known by the genial and enduring 
name of Saybrook. Previously it had been distinguished only as the fort 
or settlement at the river's mouth. New houses were now built, and the 
land more extensively cultivated. The Point was laid out into streets 
and blocks for a city. West of the fort a square was reserved for the 
dwellings of the magistrates and noble emigrants. Another square was 
set aside for the public service, — for churches, courts and schools. Across 
the neck of the peninsula a row of palisades was erected as a protection 
against tlie Indians. 

It was expected that others of the patentees and devout Puritans would 
emigrate with their families, and that prosperous towns would spring up 
along the coast, within the 120 miles of the patent, which would become 
places of refuge for noble and generous spirits that might wish to escape 
from the vanities and perplexities of courtly life and feudal obligation, as 
well as for those who should flee from persecution, or seek by voluntary 
exile a sphere of religious freedom. But subsequentl}^, a different turn 
of public affairs, and the fluctuations of fortune and opinion, effected a 
change in these designs. The higher classes of proposed emigrants found 
themselves more necessary or more comfortable at home. Statesmen and 
generals, princely merchants and titled noblemen, the Cromwells, Hamp- 
dens, Pymms and Hazlerigs i-emained behind, and left New England to 
be colonized, with a few exceptions, from the ranks of oppressed virtue, 
heroic faith, and adventurous poverty. 

In December, 1644, Col. Fenwick entered into an agreement with the 
associated towns upon the river, forming the Colony of Connecticut, by 
which, for the sum of £1G00, and the revenue for ten years arising from 
certain duties paid by vessels oh entering the river, he transferred, to them 
the fort and plantation at Saybrook, with all other rights and claims to 
the occupation, ownership and jurisdiction of lands upon Connecticut 
river, derived fi-om the Warwick patent. He only reserved to himself 
certain personal privileges and especially the liberty of occupying his 
premises at the fort for ten years, if he should choose to remain for that 
time in the country. 

From this period the settlement took a new start. It had been hitherto 
merely a military post ; it was now a plantation, and the inhabitants in- 
creased rapidly. In 1646, a church was organized, and Mr. James Fitch 
ordained for its minister. In 1647, at the special instance and request of 

* See letter of Rev. Mr. Davenport of New Haven, to Lady Vere ; printed in Hist, 
and Gen. Reg., App. 1855, p. 149. 

t Among the English nobility, a lady married to a commoner is allowed by courtesy 
to retain her maiden title. 



HISTOKYOFNORWICH. 53 

the inhabitants, Capt. John JMason removed thither from Windsor, and 
was thereupon appointed by the Colony to the military command of the 
post. He was empowered to receive the fort and its a])purtenances from 
Fenwick, who had apparently been left in possession until this time. 

Sayhrook Point, the part of the plantation lii'st settled, is a neck of 
land, elliptical in form, and about a mile in length from east to west, 
spreading out between two coves or inlets from the river, of Avhich the 
one on the north side affords a good harbor for shipping, and is known as 
Saybrook harbor. The fort stood on the eastern bank, or upland blutf, 
overlooking and commanding the Hats and shallows at the mouth of the 
river. 

This fort was built of wood. It caught fire in the winter of 1647, and 
was consumed, with the dwelling-house connected with it. Capt. Mason, 
with his wife and child, narrowly escaped from the flames. 

Another fortification was soon afterward constructed, not on the same 
spot, but a few rods distant, upon a height which advanced more promi- 
nently toward the river, and was from that time called New Fort Hill. 
A portion of the walls and embankments of this second fort, (often, liow- 
ever, renewed in later times,) may yet be traced. Lady Fenwick died at 
Saybrook, in 1G48, and was interred within the inclosure of the old fort. 
A monument of red sandstone erected over her remains is still extant, 
and has given to the site the name of Tomb Hill. 

Saybrook has no church records of the period of Mr. Fitch's ministry, 
and the town records before 1G60, are also wanting. A few items only 
of earlier date may be found standing amid subsequent entries. One of 
these, (perhaps the earliest remaining of a munici[)al character,) is a no- 
tice of a town meeting, January 7, 1G55-G, at which the following persons 
were present : 

Tlio. Aclfyate, William Hicle, 

Eobcrt Bull, Randall Marvin, 

Tho. Bmchct, William Parker, 

William Buslmell, John Post, 

Eobcrt Chapman, Stephen Post, 

John Clark, Sen , Jonathan Rudd, 

Tho. Dunko, Richard Tousland, 

Richard Edgcrton, - Tho. Tracy, 

Francis Griswold, William Waller. 

At the same time mention is made of IMr. Fitch and JMr. Lay. Nearly 
half of the.se are afterward foimd at Norwich. William Backus, Thomas 
Bliss, Morgan Bowers, the two Iluntiiigtons, Thomas Leflingwell and 
John Olmstead, were probably inhabitants of as long standing as most of 
tho.se in the list. 

It is apparent that the plantation before IGGO, had been extended over 



64 HISTORYOPNORWICH. 

a large area. The lands on Oyster river were cultivated ; plantei's had 
settled at Pautipang, Deep Eiver, Six-mile-island, and on the east side of 
the Connecticut, in Lyme, which was then a dependency of Saybrook. 
A division of lands made before 1G50, gives a list of forty grantees, and 
this number must have been nearly doubled in 1660. 

The removal of Mr. Fitch and his friends, though it weakened Say- 
brook, by no means left it desolate. She had stout and valiant hearts left 
and in the course of a few years the vacancies made by the Norwich 
emigration were filled by fresh purchasers, and new grants and divisions 
of the common land were necessary in order to accommodate the thick 
coming planters. The church, however, languished under the loss of her 
golden head, and was scarcely kept alive until 1670, when the Rev. 
Thomas Buckingham, originally from Wales, but immediately from Mil- 
ford, was settled as the pastor.* 

This preparatory sketch of Saybrook, the mother-town of Norwich, in- 
troduces us to the settlement of the latter place. 

The project of establishing a plantation in the Mohegan territory, four- 
teen miles above New London, originated, in all probability, with Capt. 
Mason. "When his previous adventures, his long familiarity with Uncas, 
and his frequent explorations of the Indian country, are considered, to- 
gether with his influence in the Colony, there can be no hesitation in 
affirming that he was the prime mover and ruling spirit of the undertak- 
ing. If any one of the first proprietors, more than another, has a special 
claim to be considered the founder of Norwich, the pre-eminence must 
certainly be accorded to Mason. He had been one of the founders of 
Dorchester and Windsor, had re-awakened the breath of life, in the dying 
settlement at Saybrook, and was now ready for the fourth time to erect 
his lodge in the wilderness. 

At what period the plan of this new settlement was broached is uncer^ 
tain. Probably it was for several years under consideration. A large 
proportion of the best inhabitants of Saybrook entered into it ; a few 
names from other places were added to the list, and in May, 1659, appli- 
cation was made to the General Court for permission to begin the work. 
The proposition was favorably received by the Assembly, and sanctioned 
by the following enactment: 

Hartford, May 20, (59.) This Court haveing considered the petition presented by 
the inhabitants of Seabrook, doe declare yt they approve and consent to what is de- 

* This worthy successor of Mr. Fitch, forms another link uniting Norwich with its 
ancient nursing mother Saybrook. Some of his descendants of the present generation, 
passing by way of Lebanon, have chosen Norwicii for their home, and given to it the 
distinction of furnishing a second Chief Magistrate to the State. William Alfred 
Buckingham, Govei'nor of Connecticut since 18.58, is of the sixth generation in de- 
scent from the Rev. Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook. 



1^ 




pigss^" 



-^^■^lyG.oEP- 



ClfMuM 




HISTORY OFNORWICH. 65 

sired by ye petitioners, respecting Mohegin, provided yt within ye space of three yeares 
they doe effect a plantation in ye place propounded. 

It is to be regretted that no copy of the petition has been preserved. A 
list of the signers would be invaluable. The action of the court speaks 
of it as emanating from "the inhabitants of Seabrook," not from a com- 
pany or a portion of the planters. This would seem to imjdy that the 
greater part of the people, or at least a majority, were proposing to re- 
move to the new settlement ; and this coincides with the current opinion, 
that the company consisted of Mr. Fitch and the major part of his church. 

It would be gratifying also, to ascertain the motives which led these 
solid and considerate householders to detei-mine upon a change of resi- 
dence. What should induce them to abandon im[jrovements Mhicli they 
had long labored to obtain, lands which they had subdued by toilsome cul- 
tivation, comfortable abodes and a civilized neighborhood, to i)hinge again 
into a wilderness and begin life anew, upon another savage soil, near a 
frontier bristling with alarm and terror. It was undoubtedly wise as a 
measure of State policy, to advance the settlements and erect a fresh bar- 
rier against Indian invasion, and this consideration may have been of 
weight with Major Mason and Mr. Fitch. But the majority must have 
had some alluring prospect of individual advantage, to counterbalance the 
sacrifices they were to make. Undoubtedly the moving cause was to be 
found in the sheltered vales and fine grazing lands, the sparkhng, dashing 
streams, the wide ranges of upland forest, and the rich provisions for 
hunting and fishing which Avere included in the broad extent of the pro- 
posed township. These were the bright attractions that charmed the 
planters of Saybrook from their fertile plains and stoneless soil, and fixed 
their longing eyes upon the frowning cliffs and wild varieties of surface in 
the neighborhood of the Yantic, the Shetucket and the Quinebaug. 

Another reason dissimilar, and apparently inadequate and frivolous, has 
been assigned, by local tradition, as the immediate, provoking cause of 
the removal. It has been said that the Norwich settlers, being for the 
most part farmers, were driven from Saybrook by the ci'ows and black- 
birds. This story is at least suggestive of a great nuisance in the early- 
days of our country. It is well known tliat clouds of these gormandizing 
fowls, darkening the sky, and filling the air with clamor, would come down 
upon the newly jdanfed maize, in the late May or early June, wlien the 
young shoots could be easily torn up, and in a few days leave the fields 
of a wliole district in ruin. These cormorants were pecuHarly trouble- 
some upon level corn-fields, near the sea, or large rivers, obliging the 
farmer to plant and reidant, and sometimes destroying prematurely the 
Avhole harvest. 

In most of the settlements by-laws were made rendering it obligatory 
upon every man to destroy, during the three spring months, a certain 



56 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

number of crows, black-birds, wood-peckers, jays, and other grain-devour- 
ing birds. A dozen Avas the usual number required, with a premium for 
all over a dozen, and penalties imposed on those who fell short.* Thus 
•it appears that the early inhabitants of nearly all our towns were obliged 
to wage an annual war, not only with wild beasts, venomous serpents and 
pilfering animals that burrowed in the ground, but with predatory fowls 
swarming in the air. 

But that the people of Saybrook were routed from their habitations, 
and forced into exile by the inroads of voracious birds, was doubtless a 
pleasant satire rather than a fact. President Styles notices the tradition 
in his diary, but dismisses it, expressing an opinion with which most peo- 
ple who consider the circumstances will coincide, that Mr. Fitch and his 
congregation relinquished their Saybrook grants in the hope of finding 
accommodations better adapted to their pursuits and aspirations at Nor- 
wich. 

The enterprise having been sanctioned by the General Court, and the 
deed obtained from the Indians, the proprietors began to prepare for a 
removal. The township was surveyed, the town plot or central village 
laid out, a highway opened, and house-lot-; measured and assigned to the 
purchasers in the fall of 1659. By what rule the distribution was made 
is not known. The probability is that Mr. Fitch and Major Mason had 
the privilege of a first choice.. 

No removal of cattle or goods appears to have taken place until the 
next year. Doubtless some small cabins were erected, and a few persons 
remained on the ground to keep watch and guard. The flying attack 
made by the Narragansetts, already mentioned, shows that there was one 
Engli.vh house and five Englishmen at Norwich during the winter ; and 
this, as far as is known, comprises the Avhole settlement previous to the 
spring of IGGO.f 

The Mohegan territory, comprising all the lands claimed by Uncas and 

*A similar regulation was enforced at Colchester, so late as the year 1717. 

" Voated to oblige every person in the town of sixteen years of age and upwards 
to kill one Duson of blackbuds, or woodpeckers or gay burds, and bring their heads 
to the Select Men ; and what are killed in the months of march aprell or may, six 
shall be counted as a duson ; and if any person kills more than his Duson he shall be 
alowed one penne pr head — and he that doth not kill his dusen shall pay to the town 
Eate one shilling." 

Taintor's Extracts from Records of Colchester, p. 19. 

t In the MS. Journal of Thomas Minor of Stonington, this memorandum occurs, 
under date of 1659, Nov. 8th : 

" We wer at Mohegon." 
It is tantalizing not to have him say more. But this being the precise montli when 
the proprietors were laying out their lots in the Mohegan purchase, it may be conjec- 
tured that Minor went there as an assistant in surveys and measurements. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 67 

his tribe, by whatever name known, within the bounds of the Connecticut 
colony, was ceded by Uncas to the colonial authorities at Hartford, Sept. 
28, 10)40.* This appears to have been regarded as a cession of jurisdic- 
tion only ; for whenever afterward settlements were about to commence, 
a regular purchase of the place was made. Often also additional gratu- 
ities were made for special tracts within these purchased towns, by indi- 
viduals. 

When the settlement of Norwich was projected, the township was con- 
veyed to the proprietors by Uncas and his sons, for the sum of seventy 
pounds. This was in June, 1659. Major Mason was at this period act- 
ing under a commission from the General Court, the object of which was 
to obtain a fresh conveyance to the colony of all the Mohegan lands not 
actually planted and improved by the tribe. In this business he was suc- 
cessful. A deed of cession was obtained, signed by Uncas and his brother 
Wawequaw, Aug. 15, IGoO.f Thus it appears that the nine-miles-square 
of the Norwich purchase was three times legally transferred from the abo- 
rigines to the whites, and each time, apparently, in the way of fair and 
honorable dealing. 

" On just and equal terms the land was gained ; 
No force of arms hath any right ol>tivined."t 

The original deed of Norwich is not extant. In March, 1G63, the 
General Court ordered it to be placed on record at Hartford.§ Appa- 
rently, in recording the deed, some slight variations from the original copy 
were allowed, for the phrase used by one of the contracting parties, viz., 
Toivn and Inhabitants of Norwich, seems to imply that a settlement had 
been made. 

DEED OF NORWICH.II 

Know all men that Onkos, Owaneco, Attawanhood, Sachems of Mohegan have 
Bargined, sold, and passed over, and doe by tliese presents sell and pass over unto the 
Towne and Inhabitants of Norwich nine miles square of land lying and being at 



* Proceedings in the Mason controversy, transmitted to the Board of Trade and 
printed in London, 1743. / 

t Ibid. This deed was witnessed by Wm. Thompson, Thomas Lcffingwell, and 
Benjamin Brewster. 

X Koger Wolcott. 

^ Conn. Col. Rec, 1, 393. 

II Tliis is taken from the first book of Norwich Proprietary Records, into which it 
was transcribed about 1680, not apparently from tlie original deed, but from ilie copy 
recorded at Hartford in 1663. It has, however, some slight variations from the Hart- 
ford record. The latter has Monheag for Moheagen, and after Great River (line 11) 
is added, " commonly called Monheag river." 

This deed is also recorded at New London, (Deeds, V. I, 226,) where the orthogra- 
phy is Uuehas, Owaneca, and Monheage. 



58 



HISTOEY OP NORWICH 



Moheagen and the parts thereunto ajoyneing, with all ponds, rivers, woods, quarries, 
mines, with all royalties, privileges, and appurtenances tliereunto belonging, to thera 
the said inhabitants of Norwich, theire heirs and successors forever — the said lands are 
to be bounded as followeth, Cviz.) to the southward on the west side of the Great River, 
ye line is to begin at the brooke falling into the head of Trading Cove, and soe to run 
west norwest seven miles — from thence the line to run nor north east nine miles, and 
on the East side the afores'd river to the southward the line is to joyne with New Lon- 
don bounds as it is now laid out and soe to run east two miles from the foresd liver, 
and soe from thence the line is to run nor noreast nine miles and from thence to run 

nor norwest nine miles to meet with the western line. In consideration whereof 

the sd Onkos, Owaneco and Attawanhood doe acknowledge to have received of the 
parties aforesd ttie full and juste sum of seventy pounds and doe promise and engage 
ourselves, heirs and successors, to warrant the sd bargin and sale to the aforesd parties, 
their heirs and successors, and them to defend from all claimes and molestations from 
any whatsoever. — In witness whereof we have hereunto set to our hands this 6th of 
June, Anno 1659. 



Unkos 



Owaneco 




his niarke 



raarke 



TV 



Attawanhood 



i 



\X 

y 

Witness hereunto 
John Mason 
Thomas Tract. 

This deed is recorded in the Country Booke Agust 20th 1663 : as atests 

John Allyn, Sec'y- 

The bounds of this tract, as more particularly described in the first 
volume of the Proprietors' Records, were as follows : 

The line commenced at the mouth of Trading Cove, where the brook 
falls into the cove ; thence W. N. W. seven miles to a Great Pond, [now 
in the corner of Bozrah and Colchester,] the limit in this direction being 
denoted by a black oak marked N that stood near the outlet of the 
" Great Brook that runs out of the pond to Norwich river ;" thence 
N. N. E. nine miles to a black oak standing on the south side of the 
river, [Shetueket,] " a little above Maw-mi-ag-waiig ;" thence S. S. E. 
nine miles, crossing the Shetueket and the Quinebaug, and passing through 
"a Seader Swamp called Catantaquck," to a white oak tree, marked N, 
thirteen rods beyond a brook called Quo-qui-qua-soiig, the spacf^ from the 
Quinebaug to this tree being just one mile and fifty-eight rods; thence 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 59 

S. S. "W. nine miles to a white oak marked N, near the dwelling-houses 
of Robert Allyn and Thomas Rose, where Norwich and New London 
bounds join ; thence west on the New London bounds, crossing the south- 
ern part of Mr. Brewster's land, two miles to Mohegan river, opposite the 
mouth of Trading Cove brook, where the fii'st bounds began. 

Such were the bounds, as reviewed and renewed in October, 1G85, by 
an authorized committee, accompanied by the two sachems and some of 
the chief men of Mohegan. The former deed of 1659, with the bounda- 
ries thus described and explained, was then ratified and confirmed by 
" Owaneca, sachem of Mohegan, son and heire unto Vnchas deceased," 
and " Josiah, son and heire unto Owaneca," in a new deed, signed by 
them OcK 5th, 1685, witnessed by John Arnold and Stephen GifFord, and 
acknowledged before James Fitch, Assistant.* 

The southern boundary line, it will be observed, is nine miles in length, 
two east of the river, and seven west, without counting the breadth of the 
Thames, and the length of Trading Cove to the mouth of the brook, which 
would make this line nearly ten miles long. This is explained in the 
deed to be designed as a compensation for " the benefit and liberty of the 
waters and river for fishing and other occasions," reserved to the Indians. 

* Recorded at Hartford, Liber D, folio 104. Also at New London, Book 6, folio 
226. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Proprietors and House-Lots. 

Who were the original proprietors of Norwich ? The current state- 
ment that they were just thirty-five in number, is based upon the author- 
ity of historians writing more than a century after the settlement. Dr. 
Trumbull in his History of Connecticut gives this number, relying, it is 
supposed, upon a list furnished in 17G7 by the Rev. Dr. Lord, pastor of the 
First Church of Norwich. Dr. Lord's manuscript is extant. He says: 

" The town of Norwk-h was settled in the sprinfj of 1660 : the Purchase of sd Town 
was made in ye month of June, 1659, by 35* men." 

He then gives a list of the names, which includes several who were 
minors at that time, and one at least [John Elderkin] whose earliest grant 
at Norwich was in 1667. 

Laying aside therefore all subsequent statements, and recurring to the 
oldest records remaining at Norwich, from which these abstracts must 
have been derived, it is found that the original records were very defi- 
cient in giving dates to the early grants. Resolutions passed at different 
periods, in the town meetings, refer to this defect. 

In 1672, a new record of lands was made under direction of the town 
authorities, by James Fitch, Jr. It was commenced May 1st of that 
year, and the book contains a registry of the town lands and grants, " so 
far as copies of said lands were brought in by the inhabitants." The 
number of land-owners recorded is seventy-eight, three or four of whom 
were non-residents. 

In 1681, the inhabitants declaring, themselves sensible of a deficiency 
hi their original records, appointed three of the first-comers, Thomas Lef- 
fingwell, Thomas Adgate, and John Post, to search for the original dates 
of former acts and grants, but nothing appears to have been done under 
iiiis commission. 

May 3d, 1684, Christopher Huntington, Recorder, at the request of 
John Olmstead, who, he says, "desirelh to have the primitive date set to 
his record of land, which hath not been done heretofore for the want of 

* Altered in the MS. from 34, and John Elderkin interlined. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 61 

an orderly dating by the first recorder, Mr. Bircliard," ascertains the true 
date, and affixes it under his signature, — "which date we find out of aa 
antient wrighting which respects our purchase interest, and right, to be 
in the yeare of our Lord upon the 30th day of June 1659." 

Again, Dec. 18th, 1694, the town, after adverting to their former neg- 
ligence in the record of proprietary lands, nominated a committee of six 
men " to search out and do the best they can to find the names of first 
purchasers, and what estate each of them put in, and report to the town." 

The striking fact is here disclosed, that in little more than thirty years 
after the settlement, the number of the first proprietors, the aniount of 
each one's subscri[»tion, and the names of all the purchasers, were not 
generally known and could not be determined without some difficulty. 

No report of the last commission is recorded. Not long afterwards 
Capt. James Fitch was employed in the same business. He began a new 
registry of lands, copying original records where he could find them, 
stating bounds as they then existed, and affixing dates as nearly accui-ate 
as could be ascertained. It is from this registry that the various lists of 
the thirty-five proprietoi's have been gathered. Home lots, that seem to 
have constituted original grants, not having been alienated or purchased, 
were in general dated November, 1659. But the whole number that 
appears to be included under this date, either expressly or by implication, 
is thirty-eight, and it is difficult to decide which of these should be 
rejected, so as to leave the number just thirty-five. 

The following list comprises those against whom not only nothing is 
found to militate against their being ranked as first proprietors, but, on 
the contrary, the records either prove conclusively, or favor the idea, that 
they belonged to that class : 

Rev. James Fitch, Christopher Huntington, 

Miijor John Mason, Simon Huntington, 

Thomas Adgate, ""- William Hyde, ■''4' 

Eobert Allyn, Samuel Hyde, 

—"William Backus, Thomas Lcffingwell, ■"" 

^William Backus, Jr., John Olmstead, 

John Baldwin, — ^John Pease, 

John Birchard, ^--John Post, 

^—Thomas Bliss, Thomas Post, 

Morgan Bowers, John Eeynolds, 

Hugh Calkins, Jonathan Royce, 

John Calkins, Nehemiah Smith, 

Richard Edgerton, y Thomas Tracj--, 

Francis Griswold, Robert Wade. 

Others having original home-lots and all the privileges of first proprie- 
tors, were : 



62 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

Thomas Bingham, Thomas Howard, 

John Bradford, Thomas Waterman, 

John Gager, John Tracy, 

Stephen GifFord, Josiah Reed, 

Richard Hendy, Richard Wallis. 

Of this second class, Bingham, Gifford, Howard, Reed, Tracy and 
Waterman, were probably minors when the plantation commenced. They 
were all married between 1666 and 1670, inclusive, and were all living, 
except Howard, in 1702, when a roll of the inhabitants was made in ref- 
erence to a division of lands which distinguished the surviving first pro- 
prietors from the list of accepted inhabitants. Bingham, Giffbrd, Reed, 
Tracy and Waterman, were enrolled with the latter, which would seem, 
to settle the point that they were not original proprietors. 

Most of these names, however, are necessary in order to make up the 
charmed number thirty-five. From the position these young men took, 
and the prominence of their descendants in the history of the town, they 
seem to have a higher claim to be ranked as proprietors than some of the 
earlier class, Hendy and Wallis, for instance, of whom we know little 
more than their names, and Wade, who soon alienated liis possessions. 
By dropping these three names, and accepting the six minors, we are 
brought back to the time-honored prescriptive number, TJiirty-jive. 

Stephen Backus, another minor, became a proprietor in the right of his 
father, William Backus, who died soon after the settlement. 

The Town-plot was laid out in a winding vale, which followed the 
course of the rapid circuitous Yantic, and was sheltered for the greater 
part of the way, on either side, by abrupt and rocky, but well-wooded 
hills. A broad street or highway vvas opened through this valley, on each 
side of which the home-lots were arranged. 

A pathway was likewise cleared from the center of the settlement, to 
the Indian landing place below the Falls of the Yantic, near the head of 
the Cove ; following the old Indian trail from Ox-hill to Yantic ford. 
This path, called by the settlers Mill-Lane, was the most eligible route 
by which the effects of the planters could be conveyed. In some 
places the forests had been thinned of their undergrowth by fires, to 
afford sco})e for the Indians in their passionate love of the chase, 
and the beaver had done his part towards clearing the lowlands and 
banks of the rivers. A few wigwams were scattered here and there, the 
occasional abodes of wandering families of Indians at certain seasons of 
the year, who came hither for supplies of fish, fruit, or game ; and the 
summits of some of the hills were crowned with disorderly heaps of stones, 
showing where some rude defence had been constructed in the course of 
their wars. But in every other respect the land was in its natural wild 
state. It was a laborious task to cut down trees, to burn the underbrush, 



HISTORYOPNORWICH. 63 

to mark out roads and pathway?, to throw temporary bridges over the 
runs of water, and to collect materials for building. 

The home-lots comprised each a block of several acres, and were in 
general river-lands, favorable for mowing, pasture and tillage. Here lay 
the prime advan^^age to be gained by a change of residence, the first pro- 
prietors being, with scarcely a single exception, agriculturists and farmers. 

Each homestead had a tract of pasture land included in it, or laid out 
as near to it as was convenient. Where the street approached the river, 
the planters had their pasture lots, in the same line with the house lot§ on 
the opposite side of the stream. 

Near the center of the Town-plot an open space was left for public 
buildings and military parades. This was soon known as the Green, or 
Plain. Here stood the first meeting-house, toward the south side, with 
the open Common around it, and a steep pitch to the river. Of its erec- 
tion there is no record. It was probably built as the bridges were, by a 
general turn-out of the effective inhabitants, laboring under the direction 
of the best workman among them. 

The dwellings of Mr. Fitch and Major Mason were near together, 
facing the Green, and with the river in their rear. The road running 
from the Green to the river, and spanning the stream with a bridge, sepa- 
rated the two homesteads. ' The allotment of Mr. Fitch, consisting of 
j eleven acres, was on the south-east side of the Green ; the home-lot of 
Mason, "eight acres more or less," — the eai'ly measurements were ex- 
tremely liberal, — was on the south-west side. 

The first wife of Mr. Fitch died at Saybx'ook, in September, 1659, 
He came to Noiwich a widower, with six children; two of them sons, 
five and eleven years of age, who became active business men, and ap- 
pear in so short a time taking part in the affairs of the town that it might 
be a pardonable inaccuracy were they ranked as original planters. 

Three aci'es of IMr. Fitch's home-lot he afterward transferred to his 
son, Capt. James Fitch. 

On the north-west side of the Green, covering the ledgy side hill, was 
the allotment of Stephen Gifford. Tliis was afterward bonglit by the 
town for [)arsonage land. On this hill, in tlie time of Philip's war, the 
meeting-house, the second sacred edifice of the town, stood. 

At the east end of the Green was the homestead of Simon Hunting- 
ton. His lot was laid out on both sides of the street, with a pleasant 
rivulet running through it and a lane winding into the woods on one side, 
separating his land from that of his neighbor, Bradford. The dwelling- 
house of the late Gen. Z. Huntington, stands on a portion of the original 
lot, which has never been alienated, but is still in the possession of de- 
scendants to whom it comes by inheritance. 

On the river, south-east of Mr. Fitch, was the lot of John Olmstead, 



64 



HISTORY OP NORWICH 



eiglit acres ; and next to him that of William Backus, Senior, six acres. 
Mr. Backus died soon after the settlement, and left his accommodations to 
his son Stephen, in whose name they were subsequently registered. 

" Memorando : the footeway six foote broad which goes t]irou;j;h the home lot of 
Mr. Fitch John Holmstead and Steven Biyckus was laid out by Towne order and 
agreement for the use of the towne, in August 1661." 

This path, tor more than a centuiy, remained a pent-way, with a gate 
and turn-stile at each end, and when at last, that is, a little before the 
revolutionary war, it was widened into a road and thrown open to the 
public, it was dark with shrubbery and overhanging trees, and known as 
the road through the Grove. 

Thomas Tracy's home-lot lay east of Simon Huntington's, on the south 
side of the street, which here runs nearly east and west. .It consisted of 
nine acres, measuring thirty-four rods on the street. His son Solomon 
afterwards built a second Tracy house on a part of the same lot. 
'\j John Bradford, four acres, opposite Tracy, with the street and high- 
ways on all sides. "Mr. John Bradford's corner," was quoted as a land- 
mark. This was at the east end of his lot, where what was then called 
"the road to Slietucket" began. 

Christopher Huntington, six acres, east of Thomas Tracy, with the 
brook between them. His house was at the corner, and the homestead 
remained in the family down to the present generation. 

By the detours of the street, first east and then south, a large central 
space was left in the town plot which included a dark and dolorous swamp, 
antecedently the haunt of wolves and venomous serpents, from whence it 
is said, often at night-fall low bowlings issued and phosphorescent lights 
were seen, very fearful and appalling to the early planters. In this 
swamp Huntington's and Bradford's brook united and flowed into the 
Yantic. These are now insignificant rills, confined in channels, or only 
gleaming like silvery lines amid the grass ; but when the country was in 
its natural state, they were loud-voiced, swift-footed streams. 

South of Huntington's corner was a ravine, Avith a pitch of several feet, 
through which, in times of abundant rain, another gurgling stream, formed 
by rivulets trickling down from Sentry Hill, passed into the dense alder 
swamp below. 

South of this ravine was the allotment of Thomas Adgate, whose land 
met that of Olmstead at the corner, completing the circle of iiome-lots 
around the central block. 

Opposite 'the homestead of Adgate a branch of the town street ascended 
Sentry Hill and came down again to the main road below the corner, in 
the line of the old Indian trail toward the fords of the Yantic. 

Upon this side road near where it came into the Town street, was the 



HISTORYOFNOEWICH. 65 

lot of Sergt^-UiQiiiaa-Leffingwell, twelve acres, with an additional pasture 
lot of ten acres', with Indian wigwams then upon it, "abutting easterly 
upon the rocks." The house lot was eighty-six rods in length upon the 
narrow highway. The residence of the late Judge Hyde (originally a 
Lei!ingwcll mansion,) stands on this old house lot; but the first house 
built upon it by the ancient proprietor is supposed to have stood on the 
opposite side of the road, founded upon a rock and sheltered by the liilL 

Sergt. Leffingwell was peculiarly the soldier and guardsman of the new 
town, and Sentry Hill was tlie look-out post, commanding the customary 
Indian route from Narragansett to Mohegan. A sentry box was built on 
the summit, and in times of danger and excitement a constant watcli was 
kept from the height. Here too, in the war witli Philip, a small guard- 
house was built, sufficient for some ten or twelve soldiers to be housed. 
It has of late been called Center Hill, an unconscious change from Sen- 
try, that has probably obtained currency from the supposition that the 
name referred to its position among other elevations in this multitude of 
hills. Nor is the name at present inapplicable, this being not far from 
the center of the modern township, though by no means central in refer- 
ence to the original nine miles square. 

North of Leffingwell, and stretching toward Ox Hill, grants -were laid 
out to Richard Hendy, Josiah Reed, and Richard Wallis, with the com- 
mons for their principal boundaries. 

Next to Leffingwell, on the street as it runs south, was the allotment of 
Thomas Bliss ; five acres and a fourth, with a lane on the south leading to 
a watering place at the river. This homestead is still in the occupation of 
his descendants, and the house itself in its frame-work is doubtless the 
original hal)itation built by the first grantee. 

John Reynolds, southeast of Thomas Bliss, six acres ; bounded south 
by the highway to the old landing-place, i. e., mill-lane. This is another 
homestead which has descended by inheritance to the present generation. 

Here was the eastern frontier of the town plot. A dense and miry 
thicket lay between the mill-lane and the upland plain below. 

Returning to the Green which divided the settlement into East and 
West Ends, the proprietors were arranged along the street and river, west 
of Major Mason, in the following order : 

Thomas Waterman, seven acres. 

Thomas liingham, four acres ; a strip running from the street to the 
river. 

John Post, six acres. 

The meadow land of Waterman and his neighbor Post is incidentally 
mentioned at an early date. This meadow, which lay in the rear of tlie 
old Waterman and Post homesteads, has i-ecently become the seat of a 
large manufacturing establishment. 
5 



66 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

The Waterman house was nearly opposite the residence of the late Dr. 
Turner. The Post house stood by the side of a noisy rivulet that crossed 
the street and leaped down to the glen below. The older portion of the 
house still standing on the spot, is supposed to have been a part of the 
original dwelling built by the first John Post, 

John Birchard, seven and one-fourth acres: sixteen rods and eleven 
feet in front. Mr. Birchard's house is supposed to be the one still extant 
at the entrance of Hammer-brook lane, and, taken as a whole, is without 
doubt the most ancient house remaining in Norwich. It has had various 
owners and occupants, but no lean-tos, porches, additions or improvements 
of any kind have changed its original outward form. According to tradi- 
tion, it was fortified in the time of Philip's Avar, and a garrison kept in it, 
who made port-holes under the roof, through which to fire if they should 
be attacked. 

Robert Wade, six acres: sixteen rods front. This lot was sold in 1677 
to Caleb Abell, and better known as the Abell homestead. 

Adjoining Wade, but with boundaries and situation uncertain, was the 
lot of Morgan Bowers. Probably his house was in Hammer-brook lane. 

Opposite Post and Birchard, on the northeast side of the street, were 
the allotments of William Hyde and his son Samuel, extending back into 
the commons. The Hyde house stood a few rods back from the town 
street, upon the "highway into the woods," as the lane was then called, 
near the present residence of Henry B. Tracy. The father and son prob- 
ably formed but one family. The Mansfield house, built by one of the 
later Hj des, on a part of the old home-lot, has descended to the present 
owner by inheritance on the maternal side from the Hydes, and has never 
been conveyed out of the family. 

Next west of Robert Wade, on the river side of the street, was the 
home-lot of John Gager, eleven and a half acres ; part of it a dense 
swamp, and Hammer brook running through it. 

Thomas Post, adjoining Gager, on the upland, six acres; "a burying- 
place excepted that lyeth within his lot, and also a way to it." 

On the other side of the street were the locations of Nehemiah Smith 
[fifteen acres] and Thomas Howard, with Hammer brook running between 
them. 

Beyond Thomas Post on the northwest, with lots reaching' from the 
town street to the river, were the following proprietors in regular suc- 
cession : 

Richard Edgerton, six acres ; William Backus, six ; Hugh Calkins, 
eix ; John Calkins, four and three-fourths ; Francis Griswold, seven ; 
Kobert Allyn, five; Jonathan Royce, six; John Baivi»vin, 5 ; John Tracy, 
twelve ; John Pease, seven, with the river on the northwest, west and 
south. 



First Hotjse Lots 1660. 




68 HISTORY OF NOEWICH. 

This was at the western limit of the town-plot, where the river by a 
sudflen turn to the southwest crossed the street at right angles. 

These thirty-eight lots were the first laid out, and though not all in 
1659, and some perhaps not till several yeavs later, those who held them, 
whether immediate possessors or not, were commonly reckoned original 
proprietors. 

As heretofore intimated, several of these first home-lots, or parts of 
them — those of William Hyde, Simon Huntington, Thomas Leffingwell, 
Thomas Bliss, and John Reynolds — shorn indeed of their original dimen- 
sions and of their first-built dwellings, but each a portion of the original 
grant of November, 1659, and with a representative house upon it, the 
most recent of which dates backward more than a century, remain in the 
possession and occupancy of descendants, having never been alienated, 
sold, or purchased, but descending by inheritance to the present day. In 
a country where the tenure is allodial and there are no rights of primo- 
geniture or laws of entailment, instances of two hundred years of family 
ownership are not very common. Similar examples are to be found 
among the farms within the Nine-miles-square, but the home-lots above 
named are supposed to be all that claim the distinction within the present 
bounds of Norwich. 

After the first thirty-eight proprietors, the next inhabitants who come in 
as grantees of the town, are John Elderkin and Samuel Lothrop. Eider- 
kin had two home-lots granted him in remuneration of services. The first 
grant of 1667 was laid out in the town plot, but being at too great a dis- 
tance from his business, it was conveyed, with consent of the townsmen, 
to Samuel Lothrop, 24th August, 1668. Another was given him at the 
old landing-place below the Falls, where, according to contract, he built a 
grist-mill for the convenience of the town. 

The Lothrop house-lot comprised six acres, and had a street, highway, 
or lane on every side of it. Probably it lay on the side-hill opposite 
Adgate's. The early intermarriages in tlie families of Lothi-op, Letfing- 
well, Adgate, and Bushnell, leading them to divide house-lots and settle in 
contiguous homes, make it ditficult to determine the precise situation of 
each oi'iginal grant. We can be confident only that these families had 
their first dwellings near together at tlie east end of the town plot. 

The first Samuel Lothrop appears to have erected a house on the town 
street before 1670. The house built by Dr. Daniel Lathrop* about the 
year 1745, probably stands on the same site. 

Samuel Lothrop, Jr., in 1679, had a piece of land given him by the 
town, to build upon, "near his father's home-lot," upon which he is sup- 
posed to have built the house that subsequently belonged to Col. Simon 
Lathrop, and still later to Rutus Lathrop Huntington. A noted pine-tree, 

* Now Mrs. Gilmau's. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 69 

originally of great size and height, stood near and pointed out the site even 
after the house was demolished. But within a few years, this interesting 
landmark, the old Lathrop pine, reminding us of the stout Louisburg 
Colonel, has disappeared. 

The next householders after these were the older sons of proprietors, of 
whom the most distinguished were John and Daniel Mason, sons of the 
Major, Capt. James Fitch, and Richard and Joseph Bushnell, sons of Mrs. 
Adgate. These are all ranked as first-comers, taking part in- the affairs 
of the first generation. 

Richard Bushneli's residence stood conspicuously upon the side-hill, 
where is now the mansion of Daniel W. Coit, Esq. Courts of larger or 
lesser significance and meetings of various kinds were held there. One 
of the Courts of Commission appointed by royal authority to settle the 
Moliegan controvei-sy, is said to have held its sessions in the great square 
room of the Bushnell house. 

A careful examination of the grants and proprietary records shows that 
in 1G72 land had been recorded to only seventy-seven persons within the 
town limits. 

In April, 1661, the first division land was laid out, (this included the 
Little Plain) ; in 1663, the second division land, which lay towards Leb- 
anon ; and in 1668, the third, upon Quinebaug river. After a few years, 
almost every citizen owned land in eight or ten different parcels. For the 
first eighty or one hundred years, very few of the homesteads seem to 
have been alienated. They passed from one occupant to another, by quiet 
inheritance, and in many cases were split into two or three portions, among 
the sons, who settled down by the side of their fathers. 

The impression made by the scenery upon the minds of the planters, at 
their first arrival, must have been on the whole of a hopeful though solemn 
character. The frowning ledges of rock, with which the place so pecul- 
iarly abounds, and the immense preponderance of forest, chastened the 
landscape almost into gloom. Many of the rocky heights were rendered 
impervious with stunted cedar, spruce, hemlock, juniper, savin, and the 
whole family of evergreen trees. The uplands and declivities were cov- 
ered with groves of oak, walnut, chestnut and maple, and having been 
partially cleared of underwood, were designated as Indian hunting grounds. 
The lowlands were dense with alder, willow, hazlenut, and other shrubs ; 
and the plains, now so smooth and grassy, were rough with bogs and 
stumps, mullein, thistle, and various unsightly weeds. The inequalities of 
the ground were much greater than at present. Running waters now 
scantily trickling down the rocks, or murmuring over a few small stones, 
were then rushing torrents, and the little brooks that creep under the 
streets in concealed channels, were broad streams, to be forded with care, 
or avoided by tedious circuits. Flowering plants and shrubs were com- 



70 HISTORYOFNOKWICH. 

paratively abundant, and the settlers must have been regaled with a suc- 
cession of scents and blossoms, from the arbutus, the shad-flower, the dog- 
wood, the early honeysuckle, and the laurel, which, at the time of their 
removal, were in bloom. Birds and animals of almost every species 
belonging to the climate, were numerous to an uncommon degree. The 
evening air often brought with it from the dingles and swamps of the 
neighborhood, low bowlings or melancholy whines, mingled with the hoots 
and plaints of owl and screech-owl, or the less demonstrative but more 
nerve-trying hiss and rattle of the venomous serpent tribes. 

To complete the view, it may be added, that the streams swarmed with 
fish and wild fowl ; in the brooks and meadows were found the beaver and 
the otter ; and through the whole scene stalked at intervals the Indian and 
the deer. 

On this spot the hardy race of Puritans sat down with a determination 
to make the wilderness smile around them, to build up the institutions of 
religion and education, and to leave their children members of a secure 
and cultivated community. They were a fearless and resolute people, 
most of them being men of tried fortitude and experience, upright and 
devout, industrious and enterprising. Though assembled from many dif- 
ferent places, they were bound together by a common faith, a common 
interest, and a common danger. They were an associated body, both in 
their civil and ecclesiastical capacity, and only a few weeks were necessary 
to give them the form and stability of a well-ordered society. 

There Avas a peculiarity in the foundation of Norwich, that distinguishes 
it from most other settlements in this part of the country. It did not begin 
in a random, fragmentary way, receiving accessions from this quarter and 
that, till it gradually grew into a compact form and stable condition ; but 
came upon the ground, a town and a church. The inhabitants were not a 
body of adventurers, fortuitously thrown together, but an association, car- 
rying their laws, as well as their liberties, with them ; each member bound 
to consult the general good, as well as his own individual advantage. 
Steady habits, patient endurance, manly toil, and serene intelligence, set- 
tled with them, inspiring and efficient though quiet housemates. In the 
early days of the township, the inhabitants labored hard, but every man 
helped his neighbor. Ti-espasses were rare ; a grand decorum of manners 
prevailed ; sympathy, kindly counsel and friendly assistance softened the 
rigors of the wilderness, and the hearts of all were strengthened with the 
constant cheer of gospel promises. All the enactments and proceedings 
of these fathers of the town, all that we can gather concerning them from 
records or tradition, exhibits a well -organized community, — a people, bold, 
earnest, thoughtful, with the ring of the true metal in their transactions. 

The whole course of history furnishes no fairer model of a Christian 
settlement. 



CHAPTER V. 

Name of thk Town. First Things and Early Costoms. 

The name, Norwich, was probably selected for the new township before 
the actual settlement, but it did not come immediately into familiar use. 
For the first two or three years it was generally known as the new town- 
ship of Mohegan. The earliest notice of the English name upon the rec- 
ords of the General Court is in March, 1660-1, where "the Constable at 
Seabrook" is required to levy a certain sum "upon ye estates of such at 
Norridge as are defective in their rates."* 

The settlement appears to have been accepted and enrolled as a legal 
township, under the government of Connecticut, in May, 1662. The act 
is omitted in the records of the General Court, but dui'ing the session of 
October preceding, the following order was issued : 

" This Court orders ye Secretary to write a letter to Norridge, to send vp a Comit- 
tee in May next invested with full [power] to issue ye atfair respecting settling that 
Plantation vnder this Goverment."t 

The name was undoubtedly bestowed in honorable remembrance of 
Norwich in England ; but why ? Was it suggested by resemblance of 
situation, or was there anything about the old English city so becoming 
and acceptable to the minds of these dwellers in the Avilderness, that they 
wished their settlement to become a New-Norwich ? The most natural 
supposition is, that the prominent persons engaged in the new plantation 
came from old Norwich, and wished to perpetuate the familiar name by 
giving it to their American home. But as yet, no such connection has 
been traced between the ancient city and the new settlement, except 
through the brothers Huntington, and even with them the link is uncer- 

* Conn. Col. Rec., 1, .362. 

t Ibid., 1, 374. In early records it is often called New-Norwich. In a journal kept 
by Thomas Miner of Stonington, and preserved hy his descendants in MS., there are, 
from 1662 to 16 76, fifteen references to Norwich, but they are chiefly bare memoran- 
dums of going thither, with nothing suggestive about them but the variations in spell- 
ing the name. In three places it is correct; the other changes are Norwitch, Nor- 
which, Norwigc, Norwig, Norigc. 



i-' i- 1 b i o i: Y c ? N L t; . c ^ . 

tain or slight. Major Mason was the controlling spirit of the party, and 
without doubt the name was either suggested in the first place by him, or 
sanctioned by his special favor. If Norwich, the capital of Norfolk Co., 
England, had been the place of his nativity, it would be easy to account 
for the planting of the name in this new soil. But it is not known where 
Major Mason was born. 

The original meaning of the word Norwich, renders its application to 
the new township strikingly appropriate. It is derived from North-wic, a 
Saxon name, signifying North- Castle, and the formidable piles of rocks 
found here, some of them crowned with the stone forts of the Indians, are 
forcibly suggestive of walls, towers and battlements. 

3fill. In settling a plantation, one of the first necessities to be pro- 
vided for was the grinding of corn. Maize was the common grain, and a 
mill was indispensable. 

The earliest town act of which any record has been recovered, bears 
the date of Dec. 11, 1660. It is the renewal of a contract stated to have 
been made at Saybrook, Feb. 26, 1655,* [probably should be 1659-60,] 
between John Elderkin on the one hand, and "the town of Moheagan ' on 
the other, to erect a corn-mill, either by the home-lot of John Pease, [at 
Yantic, western extremity of the town-plot,] or at No-man's Acre, to be 
completed before Nov. 1, 1661, under penalty of forfeiting $20. The toll 
allowed was to be ^, and a tract of land was pledged as a compensation 
for the erection of the mill. 

Elderkin's mill, erected first at No-man's Acre, was soon removed to a 
situation below the Falls, and new grants and privileges were bestowed 
upon the proprietor, that it might be well sustained. Here for a long 
course of years stood the mill and the miller's house. This had formerly 
been a noted landing-place of the Indians. A fine spring of pure water 
gushed copiously from the side-hill near by, which was literally a perpet- 
ual fountain of sweet waters, with no record or tradition of its having 
failed but once, and that was in the great drought of 1676. 

The Mill Falls, Elderkin's Mill, " the valley near the mill in which the 
Spring is," "the deep valley that goeth down to goodman Elderkin's 
house," and "the island . before his house at the Mill Falls," are all 

* This date, 1655, is a mistake of the recorder. In 1701, a controversy having 
arisen between the Town and the second John Elderkin respecting the mill, a com- 
mittee was appointed to review what was called the old Covenant with Elderkin, and 
give a clear statement of the case. In their report tliev affirm that Elderkin was obli- 
gated to maintain a mill for the use of the town, or forfeit the lands and privileges 
appertaining to the mill. To the record of this report a notice is appended, that the 
old agreement with Elderkin, "bearing date 1655, the town do now declare to be an 
error in the date." The true date is not given, but probably it was during the winter 
of 1659-60. 



HISTORYOPNORWICH. 73 

referred to in the early records, with circumstances indicating that they 
were locally grouped together. 

Forty acres on the south side of the Little Plain side-hills, upon the 
cove, were given to the mill, " to lye to it with the Landing Place, for the 
use of the town," and to be improved by John Elderkin, the miller. 

This grant covered the Indian burying-place, and was coupled with a 
reservation that the Indians should have free access to the spot, and the 
right of sepulture — privileges which it may be inferred from this stipula- 
tion the town had promised to Uncas. The grant extended over the 
greater part of what is now Washington street. It was afterwards pur- 
chased by Col. Simon Lathrop. 

First Births. Elizabeth Hyde, born in August, 1660,* was the first- 
born child of the plantation. The parents, Samuel Hyde and Jane Lee, 
had been married the preceding year at Saybrook. The house where 
this first daughter of Norwich opened her eyes upon the world, stood on a 
declivity sloping to the town street, with higher land in the back-ground, 
bristling with massive focks and heavily shadowed with chestnut and oak. 
This homestead remained in the Hyde family for five generations, the last 
occupant of the name being Elisha Hyde, Esq., Mayor of the city.f 

The second offspring of the plantation was also a female — Anne, daugh- 
ter of Thomas Bliss, born in September, IGGO. 

Elizabeth Hyde mari'ied Richard Lord of Saybrook. 

Anne Bliss married Josiah Rockwell. 

The first-born male child was Christopher, son of Christopher and Ruth 
Huntington, Nov. 1. There is no record of any other births during the 
year 1660. 

The following occurred during the first five years of the settlement. 
They were not registered at the time, but are gathered from subsequent 
records. This list may not comprise the whole number of births during 
that period, but no others have been traced. 

1661. Sarah, dr. of John Birchard ; Deborah, dr. of Francis Griswold ; both born in 

May. Sarah Birchard died young. Deborah Griswold married Jonathan 

Crane. 
John, son of John Calkins, born in July. 
Abigail, dr. of Thomas Adgate, in August. 
Joseph, son of Simon Huntington, in September. 

1662. Elizabeth, dr. of Jonathan lloyce, in January. 
John, son of William Backus, Feb. 9. 
John, son of Richard Edgerton, June 12. 

* In the town registry of these ancient births, the day of the month is seldom given. 
Mr. Birchard, the first clerk, was very remiss in this respect, 
t The present residence of H. B. Tracy, Esq. 



74 HISTORYOFNOEWICH. 

Thomas, son of John Baldwin ; no record of his birth found, but his age shews 
that he was born this year.* 

1663. Rebecca, dr. of Thomas Bliss, in March. 

Lydia, dr. of John Gager, in August. She married Simon Huntington, who 

was born at Saybrook in 1 659. 
Samuel, son of John Calkins, in October. 
John, son of Jonathan Koyce, in November. 

1664. Sarah, dr. of Thomas Adgate, in January. 

Elizabeth, daughter of Simon Huntington, in February, and died in infancy. 
Mary, dr. of John Reynolds, in April. She married John Edgerton, above 

named, (born 1662.) 
Abigail, dr. of John Post, Nov. 6. 
Thomas, son of Thomas Post, in December. 

1665. Thomas, son of Christopher Huntington, March 18. 
Samuel, son of William Backus, May 2 ; died young. 
James, son of John Birchard, July 16. 

Daniel, son of Kev. James Fitch, in August. 
Samuel, son of Francis Griswold, in September. 
Sarah, dr. of Jonathan Royce, in October. 

Deaths. The earliest death on record is that of Sarah, wife of Thomas 
Post, who died in March, 1661, and was buried in a corner of her hus- 
band's home-lot, " adjoining Goodman Gadger's lot." 

The elder William Backus Avas probably the second person, at least the 
second of mature age, summoned from the plantation. His will is dated 
June 12, 1661, and though the time of his death is not known, it may be 
inferred that he died shortly afterward. The arrangements of the will 
show that the testator considered himself near death. The homestead 
which he left to Stephen is recorded to the latter with the date 1661. 
Moreover, the testator nowhere appears after that period, and his son, 
William Backus, is mentioned in 1662 without the distinction of junior. 

Marriages. Of the first marriage in the plantation no special informa- 
tion has come down to us, either by record or tradition. Most of the 
proprietors were men of mature years, with considerable families, and 
among the younger class several marriages had taken place at Saybrook 
within two or three years previous, in anticipation of the settlement. 
Thomas Post was married to his second wife, Rebecca, daughter of Oba- 
diah Bruen, Sept. 2, 1663, but the rite was undoubtedly performed at 
her father's house in New London. We may therefore conclude that the 
first nuptial ceremony within tlie bounds of the new plantation, was that 
in which its widowed minister, the Rev. James Fitch, was united to Pris- 
cilla Mason. This was in October, 1664, and as the marriage service was 
then commonly performed by a magistrate, we may suppose that Major 
Mason himself officiated upon the occasion. 

* He died Sept. 16, 1741, in the 80th year of his age. 



HISTORYOPNORWICH. 75 

Miscellaneous Details. The early houses of our country covered a 
large area, but they were seldom thoroughly finished, and the upper 
rooms of course were cold and comfortless. A snug, well-finished house, 
adapted to the family and circumstances of the owner, is an improvement 
of modern times. These old houses were generally square, heavy build- 
ings, with stone chimneys that occupied a large space in the centex*. The 
posts and rafters were of great size and solidity, and in the rooms heavy 
be;xms stood out from the ceiling overhead, and projected like a low, nar- 
row bench around the sides. The fioors were made of stout plank, with 
a trap-door leading to the cellar. A line of shelves in the kitchen, called 
the dresser, often displaying a superb row of burnished pewter, performed 
the ofiice of side-table and closet. The best apartment was used for a 
sleeping-room, and even the kitchen was often furnished with a bed. The 
ceilings were low, and the fire-place, running deep into the chimney, gaped 
like an open cavern. But when the heaped-up logs presented a front of 
glowing coals and upward-rushing fiame, wliile storms were raging with- 
out, or the heavy snow obliterated the landscape, such a fountain of 
warmth not only quickened the blood, but cheered the heart, inspired 
gratitude, and promoted social festivity. Such scenes have made the fire- 
side an expressive type of domestic happiness. There is certainly a charm 
in the very phrase, old-fashioned comforts. 

Yet these large fire-places were not Avithout their disadvantages. They 
required a constant current of air from without to force the smoke up the 
chimney, and this kept the room cold. They were often made eight feet 
wide, and two or three feet deep. Wood was cut four feet in length, and 
the rolling in of a log was a ponderous operation that made all the timbers 
creak and crushed the bed of burning coals upon the hearth into cinders. 
Even if wood were as abundant as formerly, we should still be compelled 
to acknowledge that the reduction of fire-places and the introduction of 
other modes of warming rooms, are great improvements of modern house- 
keeping, promoting at once comfort, economy, and symmetry. 

Norwich, in its beginning, was a step in advance of most settlements. 
The people had built their first habitations at Saybrook, or elsewhere, and 
on this chosen spot, at the outset, laid firm their foundations and furnished 
themselves with respectable homes. No record or tradition favors the 
notion that huts or log-houses preceded the spacious and comfortable 
houses of the first proprietors. The builders must have had some tempo- 
rary shelter, of booth or wigwam, but it is probable that in most instances 
families were not removed until the houses were at least framed. 

Towns were not built in those days like a factory-village, all at once 
and after one model. At Norwich, especially, if considered in its whole 
extent, great diversity in the form and position of the buildings was dis- 
played. Here a house stood directly on the town street ; another was 



76 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

placed at the end of a lane ; a third, in a meadow by a gurgling brook ; 
and others wei'e scattered over side-hills, or sheltered under jutting ledges 
of rock. Some were only of one story, with two rooms; but tlie better 
sort presented a wide, imposing fi-ont of two stories, ending in a very low 
story in the rear. Two large rooms, often twenty feet square, viz., a great 
room, as it was called, but meaning a he&t or company room, and a kitchen, 
with a bed-room, and a capacious milk and cheese pantry, usually covered 
the ground-floor. The windows were small and few, most of them fur- 
nished with panes of diamond glass, cased in lead.* The rooms were 
supplied with chimney-closets, both over the fire-places and by their sides. 
In the chambers, and sometimes even in the garret, large closets might be 
seen diving here and there into the chimney, or occupying the space be- 
tween the cliimneys. Occasionally one has been found having a winding 
course around the chimney, or a turn in it like a corner ; others have had 
the door inconspicuous, suggesting the idea that they were made for places 
of concealment. As the houses decayed, these closets became receptacles 
for rubbish and vermin. Often in later times,, the wrecks of discarded 
furniture, old snow-shoes and wooden-clods, moth-eaten buff-caps, broken 
utensils, and sometimes books and pamphlets, or written papers, discolored, 
tattered, nibbled, till they were worthless, have been dragged from these 
dusty reservoirs. 

Among articles of furniture distinctively belonging to old times, we may 
notice the high chest of drawers, reaching nearly from floor to ceiling, and 
its multitude of drawers graded in size from a button-box almost to a 
trunk. 

Whether any of the first settlers owned a clock or watch, is unknown. 
Perhaps Mr. Fitch or Major Mason had this convenience; but in general, 
the only time-pieces must have been the universal noon-mark in the 
window, and the dial in the garden, — both useless when the sun was 
obscured. After a time, as wealth increased, the great house-clock, with 
its radiant, moon-like face, made its appearance in a i^^s houses. In the 
kitchen, the high wooden settle was never absent, — now used as a screen, 
and now receding to the wall, to give full exhibition to that grand recept- 
acle of cheering coals and flame, the wide-mouthed-fire-place. 

The kitchen was the principal sitting-room of the family. Blocks in 
the chimney-corners were used for children's seats ; the settle kept off the 
air from the door ; a tin candlestick, with a long back, was suspended on 
a nail over the matel, and the walls were adorned with crook-necks, 
flitches of bacon and venison, raccoon and fox skins, and immense lobster 
claws. Afterwards, as fears of the Indians died away, and weapons of 
warfare were less used, occasionally a musket or an espontoon might be 

* As late as the year 1810, windows of this kind were renaaiaing in the old Post 
house. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 7T 

seen suspended transverse from beam to beam, and bearing as trophies, 
reserved for winter use, strings of dried apples, chains of sausages, and 
bunches of red peppers. A small open recess for books was usually seen 
on one side of the fire-place, a little below the ceiling, where even the 
cleanest volumes soon acquired a dingy hue. Venerated were these 
books, for they came from the fatherland, and were mostly of that blessed 
Puritan stamp whose truths had inspired the owners with courage to leave 
the scenes of their nativity, to find a home in this distant and savage land. 
This little recess, displaying its few books, often appears in the back- 
ground of ancient portraits ; for example, in that of Col. Dyer, of Wind- 
ham, formerly among the pictures in the Wyllis mansion at Hartford. 

In these houses the Family Bible was never wanting. It occupied a 
conspicuous station upon the desk or best table, and though much used, 
was well preserved. It came from home, for so the colonists loved to call 
the mother country ; it had voyaged with them over the billowy waters, 
and was revered as the gift of Heaven. One of these blessed volumes, 
long preserved as a precious relic in the Lathrop family, and now depos- 
ited in the archives of the American Bible Society, merits a particular 
notice. It is in the old English text, and of that edition usually called 
Parker's, or the Bishop's Bible. It was })reserved in the family of Mr. 
Azariah Lathrop, grandson of the second Samuel Lathrop of Norwich, 
with the tradition that it was brought from England by an ancestor, who, 
reading one night in his berth, fell asleep over the book, when a spark 
escaped from his lamp, and falling upon the leaf, ate its way slowly 
through a large number of pages, committing sad havoc in the sacred 
text. The owner afterwards with great neatness and patience repaired 
the ravage with his pen, restoring the text to each of the inspired leaves, 
as may be seen by inspecting the venerable relic. 

The Rev. John Lathrop of Barnstable, Mass., a devout lover of the 
Sacred liook, was the emigrant ancestor of the Lathrop family : to him, 
therefore, the above incident may with some probability be referred. But 
the vohune is found among the descendants of his son Samuel, the ances- 
tor of the Norwich Lathrops, and the latter, though only a lad at the time 
of his emigration, may nevertheless have been the sleeping student who 
came so near to the losing of his treasure. All that can be asserted on 
this subject is, that the repaired Bible, with this interesting tradition con- 
nected with it, comes down to the jjresent generation in the line of Mr. 
Azariah Lathrop. 

There is no account that the planters ever experienced any scarcity of 
food, or were ever deprived at any time of the real comforts of life. On 
the contrary, they seem to have had abundant harvests, and to have been 
generous livers. Though their modes of cooking wex'e more simple than. 



78 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

those now in vogue, the variety of sustenance was nearly as great. To 
obviate the necessity of going often to mill, pounded maize, called by the 
Indians samp, or nasaump, which resembles hominy, was much used. 
Hasty-pudding was a common dish, the usual supper of children. Out of 
New England this article was called mush and suppawn. The coarse 
meal of those days required at least an hour's cooking to make the pud- 
ding good ; the name hasty is therefore entirely inappropriate, the special 
pleading of Barlow to the contrary notwithstanding : 

"In hasle the boiling cauldron, o'er the blaze, 
Receives and cooks the ready-powdered maize." 

A true hasty-pudding, that is, one which can be properly made in a 
short time to meet a sudden emergency^ requires a different grain from 
maize. The minute-pudding, so called, made of rye or buckwheat, is of 
this kind, justifying its name by the haste with which it can be prepared. 

Another dish which the Indians taught the English to make, was succa- 
tash, a mixture of tender Indian corn and new beans, forming a delicious 
compound, still a great favorite all over New England. They also learned 
of the natives to bake corn-cakes on the hot hearth, under the ashes, form- 
in"' a sweet and wholesome bannock; and to pound their parched corn 
and eat it with milk or molasses. This was called in their language, 
Yo-ke-ug* The first planters were also famous for baked beans and 
boiled Indian puddings, — dishes that have been perpetuated by their de- 
scendants, with considerable spirit and pertinacity, though they have 
ceased to be peculiarly characteristic of the place. f The beans were 
put into the oven early in the morning, crowned with a choice portion 
from the pork-barrel, and having been kept all day seething and brown- 
ing, appeared upon the supper-table, hot and juicy, and with their respect- 
able accompaniment, the slashed and crispy pork, gave dignity to the best 
tables. This was the universal Saturday night treat ; so that wits would 
say the inhabitants knew when Sunday was coming only by the previous 
dish of baked beans ; and that if the usual baking should at any time be 
omitted, the ovens would fall in. There can be no doubt that the name 
Bean Hill was bestowed on a part of the town-plot from the prevalence 
of this Saturday night treat. Bean-porridge was also, in those early days, 
a common breakfast dish. 

* Nokehick, in the idiom of some tribes. 

"Nokeliick, parched meal, which is a rcadie wholesome food." (Roger Williams.) 

The English sometimes called it No-cake. 

t It has been said tliat baked beans is not an old English dish, yet from its preva- 
lence in Norwich and some other places, so soon after the settlement, we siiould natu- 
rally infer that the emigrants brought vviih them their rclihh for this dainty of the table. 
They certainly did not find it among the Indians. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 79 

In other places, peas were more generally cultivated than beans. In a 
list of the principal productions of the Colony, made out in 1680, peas are 
mentioned, but not beans. Perhaps the inhabitants of Norwich were par- 
ticularly prominent in bringing the latter into common use, and hence 
arose their local renown in connection with them. The beans and pud- 
dings of Norwich were, however, only a popular way of representing 
tables bountifully supplied with substantial food. 

With respect to the puddings, it is ref^orted that they were frequently 
made of such size and solidity as to carry ruin in their path if the pyra- 
mid chanced to fall.* An extra-good housewife would put her pudding 
in the bag at night, and keep it boiling until dinner-time the next day. 
The carving commenced at the top, and as the pile lowered to the center, 
the color deepened to a delicious red. One can not help being curious to 
know whether these local customs could be traced back to those parts of 
England from which the planters came. 

Potatoes were then unknown in the country, and not introduced until 
after 1720. Turnips were a common vegetable. Pumpkins were so 
abundant in New England, that wits seized upon them as a symbol of the 
country. A chubby boy astride of a lai-ge pumpkin, and blowing the 
hollow stalk of the vine for a trumpet, is at least an emblem of some sig- 
nificance. Pumpkin johnny-cake, made of corn-meal and stewed pump- 
kin, baked before the fire upon the trencher, and turned to give a brittle 
crust to both sides, was an article for the table in high estimation. 

The drink of our ancestors consisted chiefly of pure water from the 
well or fountain ; but they had also beer, cider, and metheglin, and they 
made great account of syrups concocted from the juice of berries, and 
cordials distilled from mints. 

In addition to the flesh afibrded by the flocks and herds which they fed, 
the bounty of Providence furnished them with rich supplies. Deer at the 
time of the settlement were not infrequent ; wild fowl, especially pigeons, 
were at the proper season very abundant ; all the smaller game, such as 
squirrels, foxes, woodchucks, and rabbits, might be caught in snai-es at the 
very doors of the houses, and the rivers and brooks around them furnished 



* A sportive story was formerly current, that on a certain festive occasion, a conical 
puddin;^ was set in the center of tlie table, in monumental dij^jnity, but losinj; its bal- 
ance at the first insertion of the carvin<:;-knifc, it fell and knocked down tliree men. 
Whereupon the townsmen made a regulation that no pudding should henceforth con- 
sist of more than tuicnt;/ coombs of corn, that is, about lour bushels. 

The Norwich puddimjs were played by the local humorists against the New London 
dump/iiitt. The latter, it is said, were often made so large and hard that it was neces- 
sary to chip them up with a pick-axe. The remains of a great dinner being at one 
time thrown into the river, near the town, the Isle of Rocks, a noted fishing ledge in 
the harl)or, was formed, and is still by some of their neighbors called the New London 
Dumplins. 



80 HISTORYOF NORWICH. 

first-rate bass, innumerable shad, fine lobsters, delicate oysters, and liiglily- 
prized trout. Such were the dainties spread upon their board. 

The annual Fast was kept with great strictness : no food being allowed 
between sunrise and sunset. Thanksgiving was then, and has ever since 
been, the great festal day of the year, — the day for family gatherings and 
heai't-greetings ; for the noonday feast, and the evening spent in eating 
nuts and apples, telling stories, and playing blind-man's-buff, — simple ele- 
ments of pleasure, but great in their productive result. These two memo- 
rial seasons have been called the saint-days of New England, or, as ex- 
pressed by a domestic humorist, the festivals of St. Shiff" and St. Starve. 

Names. Our ancestors displayed but little taste in the way of names- 
giving, either to persons or places. The Christian names bestowed upon 
sons and daughters were often quaint and whimsical, sometimes even harsh 
in sound and inconvenient of utterance. Shadrach, Jephthah, Abinadab, 
Aquilla, and Zorobabel, are to be met with upon the records. Others 
were chosen from some implied principle of association, in defianc(! of all 
fitness ; such as Consider, Friend, Preserved, Eetrieve, Yet-once. But 
these are the extremes in this line, and none more ungainly, such as are 
often and perhaps falsely attributed to the old Puritans, are found in our 
Connecticut registries. 

Female names of a descriptive class were very common, such as 
Thankful, Mindwell, Patience, Experience, Temperance, Obedience, Re- 
membrance, Deliverance, Desire, Submit, Faith, Hope, Love, Charity, 
Silence, Mercy. Many of these, however, far from being uncouth, are 
euphonious and appropriate, worthy of perpetual repetition. 

Many local names that were current in the early stages of the settle- 
ment, have become obsolete. Such are — 

Connecticut Plains, — a tract wiihin the bounds of the nine-miles-square, 
on what was then called the path to Connecticut, that is, the old road to 
Hartford. 

Little Lebanon, — at the end of Yantick, or just beyond Yantick. Little 
Lebanon Hill and Valley, mentioned 1673, before the settlement of the 
present town of Lebanon. 

New Roxbury, — now Woodstock. 

Nicholas Hill, — south of the Yantic, since called Nick's Hill, 

Little Faith Plain, — south of Wawekus Hill. 

The first names given to a new country are usually descriptive, embody- 
ino- some prominent characteristic that shall bring the place directly before 
the mind. Thus we find on the early records of Norwich — 

The Crotch of the Rivers. 

The Hook of the Quinabaug. 

Hammer Brook. 

Stony Brook. 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 81 

Kimicall [Chemical] Spring, — ^in a grant to Capt. Fitch, 1G87. 

Tlie White Rock upon Plain Ilill, — a land-mark. 

Scotch Cap Hill, — near the point where the present bounds of Norwich, 
Franklin and Bozrah meet. 

Huckleberry Plains. Great Beaver Brook. 

Ising-glass Eock. Little Beaver Brook. 

Wheel-timber Hill. Wolf-pit Hill. 

Hearth-stone Hill. Saw-pit Hills. 

Butternut Brook. Great Cranberry Pond. 

Stonie Hollow, (now East Chelsea.) 

Clay Banks of the Great River. 

The Great Darke Swampe. 

Dragon's Hole at Kewoutaquck. 

The Rocky Hill, called Wenaniasoug. 

If any dependence can be placed on names and traditions, the Indians 
had at least three rude forts within the present bounds of Norwich. One 
at the Landing on the brow of the hill, which on this account was called 
at the first settlement. Fort Hill. This was probably the citadel of Wa- 
weequaw, the brother of Uncas. Another, upon Little Fort Hill, between 
the Landing and Trading Cove, belonging to Uncas himself. And a third, 
more ancient than either of these, on the south-western side of the Yantic, 
below the junction of Hammer-brook. This stood upon a rugged platform 
of rock, surrounded and overshadowed with woods. It was a barren and 
secluded spot ; but the tradition has been current, particularly among the 
Hydes and Posts, who first owned the spot, that here was an ancient 
Indian fortress. It consisted of a high stone wall, inclosing an area upon 
the brow of the hill, and must have been designed only as a hiding-place, 
to which to retreat in times of invasion. The stones had been broken by 
the Indian builders into portable size, and about the year 1790, were 
removed and used in the building of a cellar and for other purposes by 
the owner of the land. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Earliest Town Officers. Courts. Train-Bands. Magistrates and 

Schools. 

According to the best writers on New England polity, the four 
important institutions that lie at the foundation of our prosperity are the 
towns, congregations, schools, and militia. Upon these as a basis, com- 
munities spring rapidly into thrift and importance, and become the pillars 
of nations. The first of these institutions in ordei', and that which em- 
bodies the first element of a commonwealth, is the township. Formerly, 
in Connecticut, this included also the second branch, the j)ai"ish, or con- 
gregation, which was co-extensive with the town, and the minister not 
only the religious head, but the political counsellor, of the people. The 
schools were quiet and insignificant, partly domestic and partly municipal. 
The train-bands, on the contrary, were indispensable and efficient, being 
the town itself, in its wisdom and sti'ength, armed for defence. 

The Connecticut Constitution, the oldest of the American State Con- 
stitutions, makes no allusion to the king.* It regards the people as the 
only source of power ; deputies represent the will of the people ; towns 
select the deputies and impower them to act in their behaU'. Towns are 
older than states, and the fountains of political power. 

Townships are therefore the foundation-stones of American liberty : 
accepted inhabitants are identical with free citizens, and municipal inde- 
pendence opens the way to all other liberal institutions. 

The earliest town records of Norwich are in the hand-writing of John 
Birchard, who had probably been the Town Clerk at Saybrook, before 
the removal. He discharged the duties of a Clerk or Recorder at Nor- 
wich, for fifteen or eighteen years, but there is no memorandum extant of 
his appointment to office. No town action remains of an earlier date than 
Dec. 11, 1660, but from the fragmentary state of the oldest book, we 
may infer that several pages in the beginning have been worn away and 
lost. 

The original grants were evidently not recorded, until reviewed and 

* See Constitution of 1639 : Conn. Col. Kec., 1, 20-25. Also Code of Laws, ibid., 
509. 



HISTOEYOFNORWICH. 83 

rectified by later surveys, and these, with subsequent grants and divisions 
of common land, were registered by Captain James Fitch. 

The affairs both of the town and society, civil and ecclesiastical, were 
all recorded together, until the year 1720. The volumes are labeled, 
Town Books of Acts, Votes, Grants, &c. They contain also an account 
of the freemen, strays, cattle-marks, lost goods, and occasionally a record 
of a justice's court. Afterwards the town and society affairs were sepa- 
rated, and the latter kept by themselves in a volume entitled "The Town- 
Plot Society Records." In the first books, dates are confounded and sub- 
jects intermixed with a strange degree of negligence. Some of the rec- 
ords seem to have been made promiscuously, with the book upside down, 
or upright, as it happened ; and forward or backward, wherever there 
was a blank space, The earliest notices relate to the granting of lands, 
appointing fence- viewers, erecting public pounds, gates and fences, stating 
highways, felling trees, and regulating the running at large of swine, 
rams, and other domestic animals. These were the first subjects of legis- 
lation, and the first officers were a constable and two townsmen, one for 
each end of the town. The townsmen were afterwards called overseers, 
and select-men, and varied in number, though seldom more than four were 
chosen. It was their business (according to a town vote in 1683,) "to 
order the prudentials of the town, and see to it that the wholesome town 
orders be attended to." They were empowered to call public meetings, to 
take cognizance of all offences against law, order, and morality ; to settle 
differences, and try cases of small value. 

The imperfection of the early records leaves us without a complete list 
of early town officers. The following are all that have been recovered for 
the first twenty-five years of the settlement. Later than this, the officers 
for each year are, with rare exceptions, extant. 







CONSTABLES. 


1669. 


Eobert Allyn. 


1682. 


Samuel Lothrop. 


1670. 


Ensign Thomas Tracy. 




Joshua Abel. 


1671. 


Thomas Post. 


1683. 


Thomas Bingham. 


1673. 


Samuel Lothrop. 




Josiah Reed. 


1674. 


John Gager. 


1684. 


Caleb Abel. 


1675. 


Simon Huntington. 




Christopher Huntington, Jr., east of 


1678. 


John Bahlwin, Sen. 




Showtucket. 




Thomas Leffingwell, Jr. 


/ 


Thomas Tracy, Jr. 


1679. 


John Calkins. 


1685. 


Joseph Bushnell. i/ 




Richard Bushnell. y 




Simon Huntington. 


1680. 


Richard Edgerton. ^ 




Caleb Forbes. 




Thomas Sluman. 


1686. 


Stephen Gilford. 


1681. 


Solomon Tracy. 




John Calkins, Sen. 




Stephen Merrick. 




Thomas Parke, Jr. 



»4 


HISTOEY 


OP NORWICH. 




TOWNSMEN. 


1669. 


Thomas Leffingwell. 


1680. 


Capt. Fitch. 




Christopher Huntington. 




Lefft. Thomas Tracy. 


1671. 


John Bradford. 




Lefft. Leffingwell. 




John Calkins. 




Ensign Backus. 


1672. 


Hugh Calkins. 




Thomas Adgate. 




Simon Huntington. 


1681. 


Simon Huntington. 


1673. 


William Hide. 




Thomas Waterman. 




John Holmsted. 




John Tracy. 


1674. 


John Post. 


1682. 


Ensign William Backus, 




Thomas Adgate. 




Caleb Abel. 


1675. 


Thomas Waterman. 




Lefft. Leffingwell. 




John Calkins. 




Thomas Adgate. 


1676. 


East End, Thomas Adgate. 


1683. 


John Baldwin, Sen. 




West End, Thomas Bingham. 




Thomas Tracy. 


1677. 


John Holmstead. 


1684. 


Ensign Backus. 




Lefft. Th. Leffingwell, 




Sergt. Waterman. 


1678. 


Simon Huntington. 




Lefft. Leffingwell. 




Richard Edgerton. 




Thomas Adgate. 


1679. 


Six Townsmen chosen : 


1685. 


Sergt. John Tracy. 




James Fitch, Jr. 




Stephen Merrick. 




Lefft. Leffingwell. 




Solomon Tracy. 




Ensign Backus. 




Samuel Lothrop. 




Simon Huntington. 


1686. 


Left't. Leffingwell. 




John Post. 




Thomas Adgate. 




Thomas Adgate. 




Ensign Backus. 
John Post. 



In October, 1661, the first deputies of the town, Thomas Leffingwell 
and Thomas Tracy, appear on the roll of the General Court at Hartford. 
There was but little fluctuation in the higher public offices at that period. 
A candidate once chosen and found to be competent and faithful, was gen- 
erally a life-long incumbent. The election of deputies was semi-annual, 
but for the first eleven years, the choice, with only two exceptions, was 
restricted to four persons : 

Thomas Tracy. 
Thomas Leffingwell. 
Hugh Calkins. 
Francis Griswold. 



The exceptions were Mr. Benjamin Brewster, chosen for one session in 
1668; and John Mason, one in 1672. 

Afterwards other proprietary names appear among the representatives, 
but the perpetuity of the office continued. Richard Bushnell, beginning 
at 1691, was chosen for 37 sessions ; Solomon Tracy for 19 ; and Joseph 
Backus for 34, beginning at 1704 and ending in 1733. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 85 

In the list of estates in 16G3, Norwich was estimated at £2,571. Say- 
brook at the same time was vahied at £8,000, and New London at £7,185. 
This was before the union with New Haven, when Connecticut comprised 
only eleven towns or plantations.* Of these, Norwich was the lowest on 
the list. By the union under the charter in 1665, and the addition of two 
or three new settlements, the towns in the Colony increased, during the 
next twelve years, to twenty-three ; of these, Norwich was about the fif- 
teenth in valuation, reporting in 1676, persons 71, estates £4,598. Before 
1688, the towns increased to twenty-six, and Norwich advanced to the 
ninth position, returning over 100 polls and upwards of £7,000 in estates. 
Those higher upon the list, in the order of valuation, were Hartford, New 
Haven, Windsor, Wethersfield, Fairfield, New London, "Windsor, Strat- 
ford. 

In 1676, the best house-lots in New London and Norwich went into the 
list at 25s. per acre, the poorer quality at 20s., and other fenced lands at 
Is. In Say brook and Stonington, none were estimated above 20s. per 
acre. This was also the highest estimate at New Haven, but at Hartford 
and "Wethersfield the home-lots were listed at 40s. per acre. 

Houses were not reckoned in the valuation of estates ; being " so charge- 
able to maintain," that they were exempted from taxation. Horses, four 
years old and upward, in 1665, were reckoned at £10, but in 1670, at £4. 

In 1 680, the Lords of the Council of Trade, in England, proposed cer- 
tain queries to the General Court of Connecticut, respecting the state of 
the Colony. In the answers to these questions, an allusion incidentally 
made to Norwich was perhaps the first public notice sent across the ocean 
tliat such a town had been established. In speaking of New London and 
Pequot river, the document says : 

" A ship of 500 tunn may go up to the Towne, and come so near the shore that they 
may toss a biskit ashore : and vessells of about 30 tunn may pass up about 12 mile 
above New London, to or neer a town called Norwich. "t 

The number of towns in the Colony at this period was 26 ; the number 
of men, 2,507 ; in Norwich, 85. 

In a roll of freemen of the Colony, recorded in 1669, Norwich has 25, 
viz. : 

Thomas Adgate. Eichard Edgerton. Thomas Leffingwcll. ^^ 

William Backus. John Elderkin. Major John Mason. 

John Baulden. Mr. James Fitch. John Post. 

John Birchard. Francis Griswell. Thomas Post. 

* The word Plantation was nearly synonymous with town, — not always meaning dis- 
tinctively a new town. To obtain the privileges of a plantation, was equivalent to 
incorporation as a town. 

t Conn. Col. Rec, 3, 297. 



86 HISTORYOPNORWICH. 

Morgan Bowers. "William Hide. John Renolds. 

Benjamin Bruister. John Holmstead. Jonathan Roice. 

Hugh Calkins. Christopher Huntington. Nehemiah Smyth. 

John Calkins. Simon Huntington. Thomas Tracey. 

Robert Wade. 

Taken by us whose names are underwritten this 9th of October, '69. 

John Baulden, 
John Renold, Townsmen. 
Jonathan Roice, Constable* 

It is probable that the name of Thomas Bliss was accidentally omitted 
from this list, as he was one of those that had been propounded and 
accepted by the General Court, in 1664. 

In 1681, eight other freemen were added to the list: 

Hugh Amos. Thomas Howard. John Tracy. 

Thomas Bingham. Thomas Leffinewell, Jr. Thomas Waterman t 

Stephen Gifford. John Mason. 

In 1685,— 

Samuel Bliss. Samuel Lothrop, Jr. 

Joseph BushncU. Solomon Tracy. 

In 1662, Thomas Tracy, Thomas Adgate and Francis Griswold were 
chosen, with the townsmen, to try all cases to the value of 40s. These 
formed a Court of Commission. 
\i In 1669, John Bradford, Simon Huntington and, Thomas Leffingwell 
were the Commissioners, with William Backus acting as marshall. 

In 1671, Ensign Thomas Tracy, Serg. Thomas Leffingwell and Hugh 
Calkins held the office. These were all appointed by the town. 

The first Commissioner or Justice appointed by the General Court for 
the town was Ensign John Mason, 1672. 

In 1676, John Birchard. 

In 1678, James Fitch and Thomas Tracy. 

In 1686, Benjamin Brewster. The next year Mr. Brewster was com- 
missioned both for Norwich and New London, and in 1689, for Preston 
also. 

Cases of over 40s. value, and all weighty matters, were carried before 
a special court, called a Court of Assistants, where a magistrate or assist- 
ant presided. Several Courts of Assistants were held in New London, at 
which Major Mason, with others of the magistrates, Wyllis, "Wolcott, or 
Governor Leete, presided. These courts were subsequently merged in 
the County Court. 

* Col. Rec. Conn., 2, 523. 
t Ibid., 2, 154. 



HISTOEYOF NORWICH. 87 

Counties were constituted in 1666. New London County extended 
from Pawcatuck river "to the western bounds of Haramonassett planta- 
tion," comprising the four towns of Saybrook, New London, Stonington, 
and Norwich, with the new settlement at Hammonassett or Killingworth. 
New London was the shire town. The first County Court was held June 
6, 1666. Major Mason presided, assisted by John Allyn, Assistant; 
Thomas Stanton and Obadiah Bruen, Commissioners. 

Major Mason continued to preside at the sessions of this court until Sep- 
tember, 1670, when he appeared for the last time on the bench. 

The first Clerks of the County Court were Obadiah Bruen, Edward 
Palmes, and Daniel Wetherell, all of New London, and in office success- 
ively, each about two years. In 1673, John Birchard of Norwich was 
appointed Clerk of the Court, and held the office for eight or ten years. 

Frequent courts, either of higher or lower grade, were an imperious 
necessity of the times. It was a litigious age. The early settlers were 
fond of appealing to the laws, and settling their disputes by writs, pleas, 
and judicial forms. A case in court was, with some men, little more than 
a customary part of the year's business. When the county consisted of 
only five or six towns, frequently the list of cases for debt, trespass, dis- 
orderly conduct, and breach of law, amounted to forty or fifty at a single 
session of the court. 

In several instances, however, wherein Norwich as a town appears on 
the docket, the cases were such as show the prevalence of law and order 
in the community, rather than a fondness for litigation. Such are the fol- 
lowing : 

In 1671, the grand jury made a presentment of John Pease for living 
alone and neglecting the Sabbath. 

In 1 680, an action was brought by Frederick Ellis against the towns- 
men for warning him out of the town after he had been made an inhabit- 
ant by grant and possession of lands ; and also against Christopher Hunt- 
ington, the Clerk, for refusing him a record of said lands. He was non- 
suited in the first case ; but in answer to the complaint against the clerk, 
the court ordered that Ellis should have a record of the land. 

Prosecutions for slander, profanity, speaking evil of dignities, and other 
cases for which an unbridled tongue was answerable, were more frequent 
in the young, half-established communities of that period, than at the 
present day. An instance Avill be given for illustration, which has an 
additional interest from its connection with one who was then tlic great 
man of the nine-miles-square. With the exception, however, of this case, 
Mason vs. Richardson, the first band of Norwich proprietors furnished 
but little business for the courts, — preferring, it would seem, to settle the 
common cases of debt and trespass in a private way, or before a justice 
of the peace. 



oO HISTORY OP NOEWICH. 

At a County Court held in New London, June 6, 1671 : John Allyn, 
presiding Judge, a case was brought by " Major Mason, plaintiff, contra 
Amos Richardson, defendant, in an action of slander and defamation for 
saying he was a traytor and [had] damnified the Collonie one thousand 
pounds." The damages were laid at £500. The jury found for the 
plaintiff one hundred pounds, and costs of court, £1 8s. The defendant 
applied for a review, which was granted, and the case being called up at 
the next September court, was respited and not brought before the Bench 
again till June, 1672. 

In the meantime the original plaintiff, Major Mason, had been removed 
by death ; and when the appellant, Richardson, was summoned by the 
court either to withdraw his action or go on with his review, he replied 
that Major John Mason, who was the first plaintiff, is now deceased, and 
that he conceives the action dies with him." Samuel and John Mason, 
sons of the Major, appeared in court and tendered to defend the action, 
but still the plaintiff replied that he had nothing further to say than what 
was contained in the papers on file. The action was therefore dropped, 
and the judgment against the plaintiff remained in force. 

At the same court, when the proceedings in this case were read, Mr. 
Richardson disputed the record. He was thereupon arraigned for defam- 
ing the court by saying that a part of its record was not true, and fined in 
the sum of eight pounds. 

Execution to satisfy the original judgment was subsequently levied by 
the heirs of Mason upon the estate of Richardson, and twelve mares taken, 
for which only £71 being allowed, and the plaintiff claiming that they 
were worth much more, further litigation ensued before the matter was 
finally settled. 

The first notice of a military organization in the town is from the Rec- 
ords of the General Court: 

Oct. '66. Francis Griswold is confirmed Lt. to ye Traine band at Norridge and 
Thomas Tracy to be Ensigne. 

June 1672. This Court confirms Mr. John Mason, Lieutenant, and Thomas Leffing- 
well, Ensigne of the Traine Band of Norwich. 

These were the first militia officers. John Mason was the second son 
of the Major, and son-in-law of the Rev. Mr. Fitch. Though but a 
young man, he was already in the commission of the peace, and was this 
year chosen an Assistant. 

In August, 1673, upon some hostile manifestations from the Dutch of 
New York, the militia or train-bands of Connecticut were ordered to be 
ready for service, and 500 dragoons raised, who were to be prepared to 
march at an hour's warning, to defend any place in the colony. Of these 
dragoons, New London County was to raise a company of one hundred : 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 89 

James Averj of New London, Captain ; Thomas Ti-acy of Norwich, 
Lieutenant ; John Denison of Stonington, Ensign. The number of pri- 
vates apportioned to Norwich was 17. Saybrook had the same number; 
New London 26, and Stonington 19.* Later in the same year, Benjamin 
Brewster was appointed Lieutenant of tliis troop ; Daniel Mason, Quarter- 
master; and Lieut. Tracy, Muster-master, or inspector of arms and am- 
munition. 

According to the laws of the cotony, a train-band of thirty-two persons 
was entitled to a Lieutenant, Ensign, and two Sergeants ; but no Captain 
was allowed until the band numbered sixty-four privates. John Mason 
was the first person in the town who attained the rank of Captain. He 
was commissioned during Philip's war, Sept. 15, 1675,t received a severe 
wound shortly afterward in the attack upon Narragansett fort, and died 
the next year. 

/^Thomas Leflfingwell held a Lieutenant's commission in 1G76, and per- 
formed active service against the Indians, but did not succeed to the cap- 
taincy. The highest civil officer, assistant or magistrate of the town, 
probably had a prior claim, as in May, 1G80, James Fitch was confii'med 
Captain of the Norwich train-band, Thomas Leffiiigwell Lieutenant, and 
William Backus Ensign. | 

The predilection for military titles was a trait of our worthy ancestors, 
which it is not easy to reconcile with their Puritan origin and peaceful 
pursuits. It is rare to find upon the early recoz'ds a militaiy officer men- 
tioned above the rank of corporal, without the adjunct of his title. They 
plumed themselves upon an office in the train-bands, as a token of distin- 
guished rank and honor.§ 

Major Mason had been elected Deputy Governor of the Colony in 
May, 1660. His connection with the settlement of Norwich, and his res- 
idence in the place, gave dignity and respectability to the young town. 
Many people resorted thither for the transaction of public business. 

Thomas Minor, in a MS. diary preserved by his descendants, records, 
June 18, 1664: 

" Ould Chcesbrough was going to Norwig to sorendcr the Towne to Coneticut." 

That is, transfer the jurisdiction of Stonington, or Southerton, as it was 
then called, from the Bay State, under which it had been comprehended, 
to the Colony of Connecticut, of which Mason was then the acting Gov- 
ernor. 

* Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 207. 
t Ibid., 2, 366. 
t Ibid., .3, 60. 

§ Civil titles also were ceremoniously obscr\-cd. An assistant, or magi:?trate, was 
addressed as the worshipful. 



90 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

Again lie writes, Sept. 8, 1667 : 
" We wer at Norwhich, the Commission wer there." 

Eeferring, probably, to the Court of Commissioners, where a magistrate 
usually presided. While Major Mason lived, there was no other magis- 
trate in New London County, and he generally held his courts at home. 
But during several of the last years of his life, he was subject to attacks 
of a painful disease that often disabled him from attending to public 
affairs. This caused some inconvience, and led to murmurings and com- 
plaints, particularly at New London, where there was more trade and 
bustle, more of a populace, and a louder call for courts and pleas, than in 
any other place in the colony. It was onerous and irritating to this stir- 
ring community, to be dependent upon Norwich, the staid and somewhat 
frowning younger sister, for justice and arbitrament. Li October, 1669, 
Mr. "Wetherell of New London, Clerk of the County Court, in behalf of 
the Commissioners, petitioned the General Court for relief in this partic- 
ular, and obtained an order for an assistant or magistrate to hold a court 
at stated times in New London.* 

After the death of Major Mason, New London County had no chief 
magistrate or presiding judge resident within its bounds, till May, 1674, 
when the following appointment is recorded : 

" Major Edward Palmes is invested with magistratical power, throughout New Lon- 
don County and the Narragansett country. "f 

Major Palmes was of New London County, and Norwich in her turn 
found it irksome to go to her neighbor for award and decree. Between 
these sister townships there seems to have been little similarity of taste, 
and no fusion of purpose and action. 

When two communities are situated near to each other, and possess 
nearly equal claims to patronage and favor, — especially if they lie upon 
the same river and expect to draw their prosperity from similar pursuits, — 
occasional outbreaks of jealousy and rivalship invai'iably make their ap- 
pearance. Tlie rivalry between New London and Norwich, however, 
though it arose early and has never entirely disappeared, has generally 
exhausted itself in sportive sarcasms or a few passionate invectives, stop- 
ping short of aggressive deeds. It has been restricted to public matters 

* The petitioner stages that Major Mason, "hy God's visiting hand upon liim in 
respect of weakness and sickness of body, hath not at all times been in a capacity to 
undergo the great trouble that attends our courts," and further observes, " Our matters 
many times require able help in respect of the often recourse of merchants and stran- 
gers by reason of the convenience of our harbor here." 

Conn. Col. Eec, 2, 115. 

t Ibid., 2, 231. 



HISTORY OFNORWICH. 91 

and objects of pecuniary concern, never interfering with the cultivation of 
social intercourse, the establishment of warm friendships, the alliance of 
families, and a hearty, pl'ompt and efficient assistance in seasons of calam- 
ity and danger. 

On festive occasions particularly, the inhabitants of the two townships 
were accustomed from the earliest times to unite with the utmost cordiality 
and sympathy. Concerted parties would turn out from both places, on 
horseback, and in all kinds of vehicles as they successsively served the 
generations, and meet half-way, at Massapeag, or Indian hill, or Cochegun 
rock, or some other part of IMohegan, to roast oysters, hunt squirrels, or 
witness the Indian dance ; in spring, to gather strawberries ; in autumn, 
wild plums ; and in winter, upon sleds or sleighs to have a great supper at /' 
Bradford's, or Haughton's, or some other half-way house.* 

Nor has the jealousy between the two places ever been so patent, nor 
the exasperation so bitter, as has been sometimes exhibited by different 
sections of either to\\Ti toward each other ; between Chelsea society and 
the Town-plot, for instance, which have had seasons of convulsive enmity 
so violent as to make reconciliation seemingly impossible, but which have 
commonly terminated in greater harmony and complacency than before. 

These prefatory remarks are designed to introduce the wary, caustic, 
and somewhat plaintive petition sent from Norwich to the Legislature, 
in October, 1674, praying to be freed from their connection with New 
London County. It was a burden to which they had hitherto been sub- 
missive : 

" But upon many yeares experience it hath proved so afflicting to us that wee can- 
not but desire to bee free from this County and come under Hartford County, if it may 
be. Many reasons we could give, but we fear it will not be expedient for us to men- 
tion them ; onely this wee must crave liberty to say, that hitherto our relation to Lon- 
don County hath bene an oppression unto us, wee bearing the burthen of others con- 
tentions, w'ch now seeme to be rather of an increasing nature than otherwise." 

They further intimate that several other plantations in the county " doe 
sigh under the same burden and desire the like reliefe." Signed by Wil- 
liam Hide and John Holmstead, " Select men in the name and with the 
consent of the town."t 

This petition was not placed on record. The Legislature wisely post- 
poned the consideration of the subject to the next May, and it does not 
appear to have been afterwards revived. 

* These rural excursions to which our ancestors were so partial, were of a jubilant, 
exhilarating nature, especially those which took place in the genial seasons. Men and 
women on horses of every grade, some with pillions riding double, crowding together, 
filled the air with echoes, often shouting rapturously and singing on their way. Our 
modern pic nics fail to reproduce the joyous inspiration and healthful flush of those old 
festivities. 

t Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 247. 



92 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

By tlie early laws of the colony, it was ordered that every town con- 
taining thirty families should maintain a school to teach reading and writ- 
ing, and that a Latin School should be estabhshed in every county town. 
A grant of six hundred acres of land was made to each county, to assist 
in establishing this Latin School. These regulations were not always 
observed ; the new settlements were tardy in their educational concerns. 
The earliest schools were taught principally by females, who advanced 
their pupils but little beyond reading, spelling, and learning the catechism. 
The New England Primer, containing the Westminster Catechism, was 
the universal class-book of the children. This was first published about 

1660. 

In 1678, the County Court took the condition of the schools into con- 
sideration, and appointed a committee to see what could be done towards 
settling a Latin school at New London. 
Members of the Committee, — 

Major Edward Palmes, for New London. 
Mr. James Fitch, Jr., for Norwich. 
Mr. Samuel Mason, for Stonington. 
Capt. Robert Chapman, for Saybrook. 
Ensign Joseph Peck, for Lyme. 
Mr. Edward Griswold, for Killingworth. 
Several years elapsed before the county grant was disposed of and a 
Latin school established, but the agitation of the subject seems to have 
aroused the towns to the importance of maintaining each a common school 
of its own. 

In Norwich, no schoolmaster is mentioned before 1677, when John 
iiirchard occupied the teacher's chair, and was engaged to keep nine 
months of the year for £25, provision pay. The next item recorded is 
the following : 

March 31, 1679. It is agreed and voated by the town that Mr. Danill Mason shall 
be unproved as a school-master for the towne for nine months in the yeare ensuing and 

to allow him twenty-five pounds to be payed partly by the children, and each 

child that is entered for the full time to pay nine shillings and other children that come 
occasionally to allow three pence the week ; the rest to be payed by the Towne. 

July 28, 1680, a special meeting was called to deliberate respecting the 
establishment of a town school, and the whole matter committed to the 
charge of the Selectmen, with injunctions that they should see — 

" 1st, that parents send their children ; 2d, that they pay their proportion, according 
to what is judged just ; 3d, that they take care parents be not oppressed, eppeshally 
such who are disabled ; 4th, that whatever is additionally necessary for the perfecting 
the maintenance of a school-master, is a charge and expense belonging to all the inhab- 
itants of the town, and to be gathered as any other rates ; 5ih, whatever else is neces- 
sary to a prudent carrying through this occation, is committed to the discreshon of ye 
sd select men." 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 93 

Public works in those days were slow in progress, more from the want 
of hands to labor, than from deficiency of skill or the absence of enter- 
prise. A school-house, for which appropriations had been made in 1680, 
was finally built in 1683, by John Hough and Samuel Roberts. These 
men were both from New London, but found employment in Norwich, as 
house-builders, and about this period became residents of the town. 

1680, July 21. Mr. Arnold accepted as an inhabitant : the Select men to provide 
him with 4 or 5 acres of land as convenient as may be. 

Mr. John Arnold was a school-master, and probably exercised his call- 
ing for several years in Norwich, although the records do not advert to 
him in that capacity. An allusion occurs to " Mr. John Arnold, merchant," 
who was doubtless the same person, as a variety of occupations, in a small 
way, were often pursued by one man in those days. 

Mr. Arnold afterwards removed to Windham, where his name is found 
on the hst of the first twenty-two inhabitants. May, 1693. He settled in 
that part of the town which is now Mansfield, and the records of the place 
show that he had been master of a school in several different towns, and 
had children born at Newark, Killingworth, Norwich, and Windham.* 

Schools in our early settlements were only kept a certain part of the 
year, varying from two to eight or nine months. In 1690, the Selectmen 
were directed to provide a school-master, the scholars to pay Ad. a week, 
and the remainder of the salary raised on the list. No further notice is 
taken of schools, town-wise, until 1697, when Richard Bushnell is ap- 
pointed to keep the school for two months that year, and to be paid in 
land. 

In 1698, David Hartshorn was engaged for the same time. Here it is 
probable that the town school died out. 

In the year 1700, a startling foct appears in the indictments of the 
grand jury of the county : 

*■'■ Norwich presented for want of a school to instruct children." 

That measures were immediately taken to remedy this deficiency, we 
may infer from the fact that £6 was added to the next year's rate, for 
repairing the school-house, and about the same time a tract of land was 
granted to David Knight in payment for work upon the meeting-house 
and school-house. 

It may not be true of all New England, but in some portions of it, for 
a considerable period after the first generation had passed away, educa- 
tion was neglected ; the schools were of an inferior grade, and very grudg- 
ingly and irregularly sustained. This was probably owing to the paucity 

* Weaver's Ancient Windham, p. 42. This Mr. Arnold was probably an English, 
man, and must not be confounded with John Arnold, merchant of New London, who 
died in 1725, aged 73. 



94 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

of good teachers, and the superfluous activity of the people, which led 
them to break away impatiently from sedentary pursuits. But the inev- 
itable consequence was, that the grand-children of the first settlers were 
more illiterate .than either the generation before or after them. 

April 26, 1709, the town passed a resolution, "that they will have a 
school-master, according to law." Thin emphatic determination seems to 
imply an antecedent neglect. Richard Bushnell was again employed for 
a short period. 

Jan. 26, 1712. In town meeting, Lieut. Joseph Backus, moderator : 

" It was voted that a good and sufficient scliool-master be appointed to keep school 
the whole year and from year to year ; one half of the time in the Town Plot and the 
other half at the farms in the several quarters." 

At this period 40s. on the list of every thousand pounds was granted by 
the country, — that is, by the General Court, for the benefit of schools, and 
each town was by law obliged to maintain a school for a certain part of the 
year. 

After this we find nothing of importance in regard to schools until far 
into the century. The old course kept on with gradual improvements in 
teaching and a wider range of subjects, but with no systematic change of 
plan, to the era of boarding schools for misses and classical schools for 
boys. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Town Affairs. Grants. Prudential Regulations. 

Land at this period was given away with a lavish hand. Grants were 
often made in this indefinite manner, — " where he can find it," — " over the 
river," — "at any place free from engagement to another," — "at some con- 
venient place in the common lands," — "a tract not included in former 
grants," — "what land may be suitable for him," — "as much as he needs 
in any undivided land," i&c. A man obtains a lot, "for the conveniency 
of joining his lands together," — another five or six acres "in order to 
straiten his line," — and frequently in lieu of a lap, of somebody else, on 
his land. These laps, owing to imperfect surveys, were very numerous. 

Several of the original home-lots measured double their nominal extent ; 
the convenient terms, more or less, used in the grant, fortifying the owner's 
right. Often the grants were not only indefinite in situation and extent, 
but imperfectly recorded, and without date. In 1681, a resolution passed, 
that if no other date could be ascertained for the grant of any inhabitant, 
it was to take date from that period, and the title remain good and firm. 
Committees were frequently appointed to ascertain dates and add them to 
tlie old book of records. In 1683, one hundx*ed acres of land — "where 
he can find it" — is granted to Capt. Fitch, "for being helpflil to the town 
Recorder, in making a new record of lands." This gentleman commenced 
a regibter of the proprietary lands, in a volume distinct from the town 
books. It is endorsed thus, "Norwich Book of Records of the River 
Lands. Capt. James Fitch writt this booke." This register was after- 
wards partially copied and continued by Richard Bushnell and others. 
Clerks of the Proprietors, until the year 171:0, when the final division of 
the common lands was made, the accounts of the proprietors closed, and 
their interests merged in those of the town. 

Grants were uniformly made by a town vote. Examples : 

1669. " Granted to one of Goodman Tmcie's sonnes 100 akers of land in y° divisioa 
of y'' out lands. 

" Granted to Sergent Waterman liberty to lay down twenty acres of upland over 
Showtucket river, and take it up again on the same side of the river, against Potapaug 
bills, adjoining to some other lands he is to take up, and the town leaves it to the meas- 
urers to judge respecting any meadow that may fall within the compass of it, whether 
it may be reasonable to allow it to him or not." 



96 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

" Granted to Mr. Brewster and John Glover two bits of land on the east side of 
Showtucket river, near their own land, they two with the help of Goodman Elderkin 
to agree peaceably about the division of it between them, and in case they cant well 
agree about the division then it falls to the town again." 

" Granted to Ch"^ Huntington, Sen', an addition to his land at Beaver Brook to the 
quantity of seven or eight acres to bring his lot to the place where the great brook turns 
with an elbow." 

In 1682 we find the following entry : 

"It is voted y' there shall be a book procured at town charge for the recording of 
lands, and allso a boat cumpas and y*- there shall be allowed to any of the inhabitants 
of this townc to make a new survey of their land provided they take their neibors with 
y"" whose land lyeth adjoining to them." 

To the confusion produced by contradictory deeds, grants without 
date, and careless surveys, was added that of undefined town limits. This 
led to vexatious and long-continued disputes with the Indians, and after- 
wards with the neighboring towns. The Selectmen were obliged to per- 
ambulate the bounds, in company with a committee from the adjoining 
towns, every year, and to see that the boundaries and meres were kept up. 
The preservation of boundaries, both public and private, was extremely 
difficult, where the only marks were a white oak tree, or a black oak with 
a crotch, — a tree with a heap of stones around it, — a twin tree, — a very 
large tree, — a great rock, — a stone set up, — a clump of chestnuts, — a wal- 
nut with a limb lopped off, — a birch with some gashes in it, &c. If a man 
set up a stone in the corner of his grant, with his initials marked on it, 
he was much more precise than his neighbors. A strip of land, about 
three miles in breadth, lying between the northern boundary of New Lon- 
don and the southern of Norwich, gave rise to much litigation and contro- 
versy, not only among individuals, but between the two towns, and the 
whites and Indians. Three parties claimed it, and each was officious in 
selling and conveying it to individuals, so that a collision of claims and 
Interests was inevitable. It was long before this affair was satisfactorily 
settled. Many committees were appointed ; and the town hoped to arrange 
the difficulty by referring it, as far as they were concerned, " to the wor- 
shipful Samuel Mason and the Rev. Mr. Fitch." This tract is now 
included in Montville. 

Dec. 31, 1669. "Ordered by the town concerning the outlands that, there shall be 
only one allotment for the said lands and every man shall take his allotment in the 
place where God by his Providence shall cast it, Mr. Fitch only excepted." 

The meaning probably is, that Mr. Fitch had the liberty of choice, but 
others must abide by the lot. 

Every enterprise that tended to advance the public convenience was 
patronized by a grant of land. The advancing settlements began to 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 97 

require a regular ferry over Shetucket river, about the year 1G70. Sam- 
uel Starr proposed to keep this ferry, and for his encouragement land was 
given him upon the east side of the river, where he began to build and 
make fences ; but soon relinquished his purpose and forfeited the grant. 
Li November of that year, the town reclaimed the grant and authorized 
reprisals ; to wit : 

Nov. 6, 1670. "The towno have sivcn liberty promising defence to any that shall 
demolish whatsoever building or fencing is done upon said lands by Samuel Starr." 

In 1671, Hugh Amos was engaged to keep the ferry, and the land 
made over to him, 

Nov. 18, 1679. The ferry place over the Shov/tucket shall be at the upper end of 
the Island against the land of Levt.Ifeffi.ogwell.— The adjoining lands granted to 
Hugh Amos for keeping the ferry are to extend as far as his neighbor Kockwell's land. 
—None to set up a ferry between this place and the mouth of the river." 

A blacksmith was encouraged to enter upon business by a similar 
reward : 

March 11, 1699. Granted to Joseph Backus so much land upon the hill by Thomas 
Post's house, as may be needful for him. to set a shop and coal-house upon, provided he 
improves it for the above use. 

This grant was confirmed the next year. The place was between the 
roads, just below Bean Bill, and remained in the Backus family for three 
generations. 

July 7, 1704. The town being sensible of their uecd of another blacksmith desire 
that the son of Capt. Edmonds of Providence, may be invited to settle in the town, 
engaging that coals and a place to work in, shall be provided by the town. 

This application was not successful. Jonathan Fierce was subsequently 
engaged as a smith, and land given him for his encouragement both in 
17U5 and 1712. 

A miller, a ferryman, and a blacksmith, were important personages for 
the infant settlement. 

A saw-mill would seem also to have been a desirable acquisition, but 
this convenience was not early obtained. In 1680 a grant of 200 acres of 
land was tendered to Capt. Fitch for his encouragement in setting up a 
saw-mill. This was reiterated in 1689, with the condition that if the mill 
was not forthcoming within two years, the privilege should be forfeited. 
In 1691 no mill had been built, and the town proposed to erect one on its 
own account. This was not done, and it does not appear that any saw- 
mill was set in operation, within the town limits, until about 1700. 

The first planters might have had some of their work done at Mr. Triu- 
throp's saw-mill on the river above New London, from whence the trans- 
portation by water was easy. But in general, the timber and plank that 
7 



98 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

composed the first habitations were hewed and shaped entirely by hand. 
Many of the houses were covered with short clapboards, overlapped like 
shingles, and these wei'e split and cut without the aid of the saw-mill. 
The beams and rafters of old buildings still extant, are scarred with 
hatchet clefts. The axe was a mighty instrument, when wielded by these 
hardy pioneers. With a brave heart and a stropg arm they marched into 
the wilderness, and it took but a short time to transform a clump of trees 
into a comfortable dwelling. 

In 1G90, a committee was appointed to fix upon a suitable position for 
a fulling-mill. 

In 1704, Eleazer Burnham applied for "liberty to set up a fulling-mill 
upon the stream that runs into Shetucket river by the Chemical Spring." 
Thirty acres of land were granted to encourage the undertaking, and more 
promised if the enterprise should prove successful. 

The project, however, foiled. Competent workmen in this trade were 
then scarce in the country. Before the year 1710 there was but one 
clothier in the whole colony of Connecticut. 

The regulation of swine was a subject brought up at almost every pub- 
lic meeting for a number of years. Innumerable were the perplexities, 
the votes and the reconsiderations respecting them. Sometimes they were 
ordered to be rung and yoked, — at others not : sometimes strictly confined, 
and then again suffered to go at large. There is no municipal act of those 
early days introduced with such prosy solemnity as the report of a com- 
mittee on this subject, accepted and confirmed by the town : 

" When Providence shall so order, (says the act,) that there are plenty of acorns, 
walnuts or the like in the woods then it may be considered and determined what liberty 
to grant in this respect that the swine may have the benefit and profit of it." 

" In tlie time of acorns we judge it may be profitable to suffer swine two months or 
thereabouts to go in the woods without rings." 

The stringency of these laws in regard to the confinement of swine, 
they justified by the necessity of the case : " Our corn-fields being remote 
from the settlement and our mowing lands not in one parcel, but scattered 
here and there through the town." 

Yokes for swine were to be two feet in length, and six inches above the 
neck. 

The recording of cattle-marks was a work of no small labor, and one 
which the increasing herds made every year more and more arduous. 
The pasture lands being mostly held in common, and private fences often 
rude and insecure, and therefore strays frequent, it was absolutely neces- 
sary that each man's cattle should bear a peculiar mark, and that this 
mark should be made matter of public record. These marks were made 
on the ear, and were of this kind — a cross, a half-cross, a hollow cross, a 
slit perpendicular, horizontal or diagonal, one, two, or three notches, a i 



HISTORYOFNORWICH. 99 

t 

penny, two pennies, or a half-penny, a crop or a half-crop, a swallow-tail, 
a three-cornered hole, &c. 

All public affiiirs were transacted town-wise ; and of course some mis- 
takes were made in their legislation, which experience or mature delibera- 
tion corrected. Occasionally, under a town vote which had been recorded, 
an endorsement to this purport is found : " Ondon next meeting." 

All the effective males turned out at certain seasons of the year, to labor 
on the highways, or to build and repair bridges. Two horse-bridges were 
very early erected over the Yantic, at each end of the town-plot ; and 
before many years, six bridges over the same river were maintained by 
the town.' 

The roads leading into the countrj^, and fi-om tov.n to town, were at first 
merely foot or bridle paths. It was a great advance when they were 
widened or cleared into cart-paths. Tlie patJi to Neio London was exceed- 
ingly rough and circuitous, with several pitches meriting the name of 
hreak-nechs. ■ The path to Connecticut, often referred to in old records, 
was the road leading westward through Colchester, toward Hartford and 
Wethersfield. 

The town street was originally laid out four rods wide in the narrowest 
part. Most of the branches or side-roads, leading into the woods, were 
kept as pent-ways, closed with gates or bars. Mill-lane was the regular 
avenue to the old Landing Place. There was no direct path to that rock- 
incumbered, forest-crowned Point between the rivers, where now an im- 
[)Osing city sits upon the hill, with her shining garments trailing far around 
her. The road thither from Mill-lane and No-man's Acre was very cir- 
cuitous, following the turns of the river and the declivities of the hills. 
The whole point was considered scarcely worth a pine-tree shilling. For 
the first fifty years, almost the sole use made d^ that quarter of the town 
was for a sheep-walk, and for that purpose it was kept within fence and 
gate. 

1670. "It is or'lered if any person shall pass with horse or cattle over the general 
I'cnce and so come through the Little Plain, to or from the town, he shall pay a tine of 
5 sliillings." 

A gate was maintained at the town charge below th(; house of John 
Reynolds, another at Thomas Bliss's, or Leffingwell's corner, a tliird at 
the end of the Green by Mr. Fitch's, a fourth at Quarter-bridge lane, 
near the houses of John Calkins and Samuel Griswold, and a fifth at 
Stephen Merrick's on Bean Hill. 

The fences were a continual source of vexation. One of llie duties 
enjoined upon the townsmen was, "that they take effectual care to secure 
llie field.s in which is our livelihood." The winter was the season for 
making fences and cutting bushes. It was repeatedly ordered that alt 



100 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

front fences should be done up by the first of March, and the gene2*al 
fences by the first of April. The front fences were to be "a five rayle or 
equivalent to it, and the general fences a three rayle or equivalent to it." 
Afterwards a lawful fence upon plain ground was thus defined — "A good 
three rail fence, four feet high ; or a good hedge, or pole f^nee, well staked, 
four and a half feet high." Two pounds were erected in 1669, one at 
each end of the town, which appear to have had plenty of occupants ; for 
cattle, swine, sheep and goats often roamed at large, and trespasses were 
frequent. 

March 2, 1685-6. "Voted that the town will cut bushes two days this ensueing 
year; one day on 'ye hill, the other in ye town, and that the townsmen procure hay- 
seed at the town charge." 

In 1 687, the order for bush-cutting was repeated in urgent terms, as 
absolutely necessary for the successful raising of sheep and swine, and 
the townsmen were empowered to call out for the customary two days' 
service, all the inhabitants between fourteen and seventy years of age, 
farmers only excepted. 

The inhabitants being principally employed in agricultural pursuits, 
their trading must have been chiefly in the way of barter. Clothing and 
provisions formed the circulating currency. Loaded boats, however, fre- 
quently passed up and down the river, and the beginning of commerce 
was soon beheld at the old Landing Place. 

No shopkeeper or merchant appears among the early inhabitants. Li- 
cidental allusions are found to temporary traders, but for a considerable 
period most of the commodities required for comfortable house-keeping, 
not produced among themselves, were probably procured at New London. 
Alexanger Pygan, an early merchant of that place, but originally from 
Saybrook and doubtless well acquainted with Norwich people, had many 
customers among them, receiving in return for his merchandize, the rich 
produce of the field, the stall, and the dairy. A note-book of Mr. Pygan 
has been preserved, which contains the names of thirty-two persons in 
*' Norwich and Windam," with whom he had accounts before 1700. 

Inn -keepers were considered as town officers. The appointment was one 
of honor and respectability, and to obtain a license to keep a House of 
Entertainment, a man must be of good report and possessed of a comfort- 
able estate. The first of wliom we have any notice was Thomas Water- 
man. 

"Dec. 11, 1679. Agreed and voted by y" town y' Scrgent Thomas Waterman is 
desired to kecpe the ordynary. And for his encouragement he is granted four ackers 
of paster land where he can convenyently find it ny about the valley going from his 
liouse into the woods." 




i^rawsd 07 ICBoare,*'*''' '""^'"^ 




/2/UrCco 



■ixeg.\toiiu. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 101 

To him succeeded, about IG'JO, D^a. Simon Huntington. Under date 
of Dec. 18, 1004^, is the following appointment: 

" T!ie towne makes choise of calil) abcU to keep ordiuari or a house of eiitertayne- 
ment for this yeare or till another be choosea." 

In 1700, liberty was given to Tliomas Leffingwell to keep a House of 
Entertainment. This is supposed to have been the commencement of the 
famous Leffingwell tavern, at tlie east corner of the Town-plot, which was 
continued for more than a hundred years. 

In 170G, Simon Huntington, Jr., was licensed; in 1709, Joseph Rey- 
nolds. 

Dec. 1, 1713. "Sargent William Hide is chosen Taverner." 

These were in the town-plot. 

The frequency of taverns in the early days of the country, when the 
population was slender and travelei's w^ere few, excites some surprise. 
But our English ancestors had a prescriptive love for a common gather- 
ing-place, — not a bar-room, nor a caravansery, nor even a club, but a lire- 
side, a porch, or a bench under the trees, where curi-ent events and [)rivate 
opinions might be circulated, and a kind of "portico parliament" held, 
with an accompaniment of a mug of flip or a drawing of cider. They 
have sent down to us a maxim which their own practice contradicted ; 

" Taverns are not for town-dwellers." 

The following order shows that an erroneous principle prevailed among 
the authorities of the town, viz., that church-membership conveyed civil 
rights and privileges. A regulation so remarkably prescriptive and sect- 
arian in its bearing, could not have been long enforced in a mixed and 
rapidly increasing community. It has more of the Blue-law tincture than 
any other item upon the records of the town. 

Dec. 11, 1679. Agreed and voted at a town meetin<j, — 

" That the power and privilege of voting in town meetings in ordering any town 
affairs shall only belong to those who are the purchasers of the said plantation and con- 
sequently to their lawful heirs and not to any oihers who have been or shall be admit- 
ted to be inhabitants upon other considerations. Only it is granted to those who are 
or shall be church members, in full communion, equal privileges with us in the above 
mentioned town concerns." 

WEARS. 

March 7, 1686. " Shetucket river from the mouth to the crotch of Quinncbaug is 
granted to Serg* Rich<> Bushnell and three others with liberty to increase the number 
to twelve or twenty for the purpose of making wears and taking fish for the term of seven 
years, they attending to those things that arc customary in other places in New Eng- 
land in respect to opening the weares." 



102 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Great care was taken to admit no inhabitants that were not industrious 
and of good moral character. Transient persons, and those who had no 
particular way of getting a livelihood, were quickly warned out of town. 

A few instances will be given to show the solicitude of the townsmen 
to keep the community free from vagrants and contemners of law and 
order. 

" At a towne meeting January 24, 1678, the Towne having seryously considered the 
desires of Frederick Ellis lether dresser respecting his admission into the towne to set 
up and make improvement of his trade, — we hearing some things y' doe apeare much 
discouraging and allso his comeing to us not being so orderly haveing no testymony 
from the place from whence he came of his comely behaviour among rhem but reports 
passing rather to the contrary, yet notwithstanding he being providentially amongst us 
we are willing to take a tryall of him for one yeare provided y' if he carryeth not 
comely and comfortably amongst us y* he shall now at his entrance give security under 
his hand y' upon a warning given him by the Select Men of the town he shall without 
delayes remove his dwelling from us." 

With the passage of this vote, space for a tannery was granted to Ellis 
upon Hammer brook, and seven acres of land promised conditionally, but 
after a sliort trial a collision occurred between him and the town authori- 
ties, which endi^d in his expulsion from the place, and a fruitless resort on 
his part to the courts for redress. 

"1692. — "Whereas Richard Elsingham and Ephraim Philips have petitioned this 
town that they may live here one year, the town do agree that they m.ay dwell here the 
year ensuing, provided that they then provide for themselves elsewhere." 

No exchange or alienation of house-lots and no sale of lands could be 
made Avithout the consent of the town. If a man sold house or land with- 
out first tendering it to the town and obtaining permission, the compact 
was declared null and void. An early exchange of allotments, made by 
Wade and Abell, is recorded Avith a ceremonious preamble : 

"Forasmuch as in Anno Dom 1677, January 1, Caleb Abel and Robert Wade by 
mutual agreement and consent of their wives did then see cause to make an exchange 
of their home-lots, making over the property each to other by deed," &c. 

[Confirmed by the town, and signed by Robert Wade and his wife Susannah, Caleb 
Abel and his wife Margaret.] 

In 1704, Thomas Rood sold his house and land without the consent of 
the town, and the sale was declared null and void. 

The Annual Town Meeting was held at first in Februaiy, but afterward 
in December. Warnings for town meetings were set up six days before 
the time, at the smith's shop, (l)etween the roads,) at the corner of the 
Green, at Ensign Leflingwell's, and other conspicuous places. The meet- 
ings were opened at 9 o'clock A. M., and must be dismissed half an hour 
before sunset, at the latest. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 103 

Slieep- Walks and a Shepherd. Several sheep-walks were laid out in 
different parts of the town, to accommodate the several districts. One 
of these was at Wequonuck Plains, and another, agreed upon in 1G73, 
lay "between the Great River and the Great Plain," reaching south to 
Trading Cove. 

Two others were reserved expressly for the benefit of sheep-owners 
living in the town-plot, and not for farmers, and were called the East and 
West sheep-walks. These remained long intact. The eastern reserva- 
tion, of 900 acres, covered the Point between the rivers, now the central 
part of Norwich City. No special appointment of a shepherd to preside 
over this walk has been found. The west sheep-walk, of 700 acres, ex- 
tended over West Wawecos Hill, and Richard Pasmoth was appointed the 
shepherd, Feb. 12, 1682. He was to have a salary of 40s. per annum, 
and twelve acres of land on the hill for a house-lot, and the sheep-owners 
were to take their turns with him in guarding and folding the flock on the 
Lord's days. 

Sheep-raising, however, was never carried to its expected extent in 
Norwich, and in 1726 the two reservations were relinquished and divided 
as commons among the inhabitants, according to the following general 
principles : 

No one to have less than a fifty-pound share. 

First-comers who had fallen in estate, to be rated as at first. 

All other shares to be laid out according to estates in the list. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Indian History. Attempts of Mr. Fitch to Christianize the Indians. 

Philip's War. 

The Mohegans were eager to exchange their services for the food, 
clothing and other comforts which tliey received from the English. Many 
of them erected wigwams in the vicinity of the settlers, and some even in 
their home-lots. The plantation soon swarmed with them, and the whites 
found them rather troublesome neighbors. Their habits of indolence, 
lying and pilfering were inveterate. At first, a strong hope of converting 
them to Christianity was very generally entertained, but the major part of 
the planters soon relinquished the task in despair. It was now found a 
work of no small difficulty to shake them off, or to keep them in due sub- 
jection and order. Laws wei-e repeatedly made for their removal from 
the town, but still they remained. Restrictions of various kinds were 
thrown around them ; a fine of 10s. was imposed on every one who should 
be found drunk in the place ; the ^^erson who should furnish an Indian 
with ammunition of any kind, was amerced 20s., but they were neither 
driven away, nor their morals improved. 

The Indian of that day, — the one with whom the early settlers had to 
deal, — was a heathen of the most untameable species. He would readily 
fall into vicious habits, but if he made any advance in civilization, it was 
accompanied with a tendency to relapse, which rendered it necessary to 
be cautious in trusting him, even when he seemed the safest. Vagrancy 
was his nature and his habit, and he was moreover deceitful and thievish 
beyond remedy. 

With such a people swarming around them, the path of the settlers, 
however beautifully embellished with roses in other respects, was beset 
with troublesome thorns. There is no race of men whom it has been 
found so difficult to civilize and Christianize, and at the same time to pre- 
serve and render prosperous, as the Aborigines of America. A change 
of their wild habits leads by degrees, more or less rapid, to extinction. 

The conversion of these Indians was a cherished object with the Rev. 
Mr. Fitch. He continually sought opportunities for sowing the seed, and 
his earnest faith and large-hearted charity made him hopeful of the har- 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 105 

vest. He cultivated an intercourse with the tribe, and made use of every 
opportunity for acquiring their language. 

Most of" the early settlers of Norwich gleaned enough of the Indian 
tongue to be able to chaffer and chat with tlieir vagrant visitors, and learn 
the general news of the tribe. The Indians on their part were equally 
venturesome and successful in their inroads upon the English speech. 
But Mr. Fitch, having a great purpose in view, pursued the study of the 
native tongue with system and a fair measure of success. After a few 
years he was able not only to instruct in private, or with an interpreter, 
but could speak in a way to be understood and appreciated in assemblies 
of the tribe. 

With the sachems and chiefs, Christianity was never popular ; not all 
their reverence for Mr. Fitch and the benefits he heaped upon them, could 
induce them to accept his doctrine and worship the Being whom he adored. 
Uncas and Owaneco, it is true, fluctuated somewhat in their bearing toward 
the subject, but at heart were never its favorers, and Wawequaw, the 
brother of Uncas, a chief of power and influence, if we may believe tra- 
dition, was invariably hostile. 

But among the poorer, gentler, and more scattered families, particulaidy 
among the tributaries and those adopted from other tribes, who were often 
oppressed by Uncas, Mr. Fitch found willing ears and accessible hearts. 
Here the gospel seemed to come as into a prepared place, bringing with it 
peace and comfort. Mr. Fitch rejoiced over these poor people as over 
lost children that had been found, and collected them into a small commu- 
nity, setting over them instructors and guardians from among themselves, 
whom he himself taught and trained for their office. 

The war with Philip commenced in June, 1G75, and raged about fifteen 
months. Mr. Fitch was an active agent and valued counselor of the gov- 
ernment. Norwich and Stonington were frontier towns, and consequently 
kept during the whole course of the war in a state of excitement and 
apprehension. Alarming rumors swept over them with every wind. Sol- 
diers from all quartei's, horse and foot, came among them for rendezvous ; 
bands of friendly Indians, apparreled for war, made these their starting- 
points ; and often other parties, connected with the hostile tribes, forlorn, 
abject, famished, came from tlieir haunts to take whatever doom — kind- 
ness, captivity, or death — might be awarded to them. 

Of these incidents, interesting and exciting as they are, the town records 
furnish no information. Indian regulations and warlike proceedings were 
affairs of the g(Mieral government, and not of selectmen and constables. 
We must therefore look elsewhere for mementoes of the war.* 

* The author has very carefully prepared the following review of Philip's war. The 
principal facts may be verified from the second volume of Conn. Col. Records, but 
various bints, dates and minor circumstances have been gathered from county court 
papers, and other local MSS., public or private. 



106 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

A rapid sketch of the shifting scenes presented to the inhabitants of 
Norwich during this period of alarm, is all that can be here attempted. 
The picture would serve, with a change of names and some variation of 
detail, for almost everj town then lying upon the barbarian frontier. 

In Jul J, 1G75, those vague alarms that had occasionallv swept out of 
the wilderness, became embodied in startling reports of hostile Indians 
prowling in the vicinity. An invasion was apprehended, a night watch 
was established ; several houses at intervals along the street were fortified- 
and householders lay down to sleep with loaded muskets by their side. 

Brewster, Mason, and Tracy, the train-band officers of the town, were 
summoned to attend upon Capt. Wait TTinthrop, with a certain number of 
men, and assist in an expedition into the Narragansett country, to prevent 
that tribe, if possible, from joining the party of Philip.* Uncas came to 
consult with Mr, Fitch, and ]Mr. Fitch visited the Pequots to see if all 
was right in that quarter. The Indians consented to join the English, but 
apparently with a doubtful mind, and inclined to take that side only 
because it was the strongest.f 

Of Uncas the English had at first deep distrust. He professed great 
friendship in his consultation with ^Ir. Fitch, but the latter thought it 
prudent that he should be induced to commit himself as soon as possible, 
by some act of hostility against Philip. The sachem saw where his inter- 
est lay, and consented to engage in immediate action. Before the end of 
July, fifty Mohegan warriors, staunch and well caparisoned, under the 
command of Owaneco, who had two other sons or near relatives of Uncas 
with him, were ready to start for Boston, there to offer their services 
against the Pocasset chief. They paused in Norwich to obtain letters 
from Mr. Fitch and Lieat- Mason, and then proceeded to the Bay. At 
Boston the two younger chief's were retained as hostages, but Owaneco 
and his men were dispatched to join the ^Massachusetts forces then in the 
field. It was this party that on the Ist of August fell upon the rear of 
Philip's retreating force, at Eehoboth plain, and killed a number of his 
men. — among them one of his bravest captains, named Woonashum, alias 
Nimrod.t 

]VIajor Pynchon of Springfield, in a letter to Gov. TTinthrop of Con- 
necticut, Aug. 7, 1675, observes: 

" If T* Pequot Indians and Moheags would now pursue Philip while he is faint and 
wearj it would be the best service, and so likewise for our army : for y* Indians say he 
hath lefc his country wholly ; so that it is to noe purpose to be there, neither is there 
any need of fear about Norwich. "§ 

* Lieut. Tracy was the Quartermaster or Commissary of the expedition. Conn. 
Col. Eec, 2, 332. t Ibid., 2, 336. 

J Increase ilather's Hist, of Philip's War, Drake's excellent edition, p. 65^ 

§ Ibid., Appendix, p. 238. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 107 

At this time, Joshua, another son of Uncas, took the field with a band 
of thirty Indians, and went up by the way of Hartford, to scour the woods 
in the route of the retreating foe. He was at Hadley, Aug. 9th.* 

In the latter part of August, a body of Nipmug Indians, comprising 
twenty or thirty families, 126 in all, surrendered themselves to Uncas. 
Lieut. Mason also, with a party of volunteers, whites and Indians, made a 
hasty march into the wilderness, to secure a troop of timid, unsettled, wan- 
dering Indians, allies of Philip, that had been arrested in their flight west- 
ward by the friendly Wabequassets, and detained for English supervision.f 
These were brought to Mohegan and delivered in charge to Uncas, but 
the greater part were afterward transferred to Boston. 

During the month of September, the Mohegans and Pequots were out 
with their whole force. Every able-bodied man among them was engaged 
in the various forays against the enemy, generally attached to some Eng- 
lish command, but under little restraint in regard to forage and plunder. 

Major Pyncheon, in a letter to the Council of Connecticut, notices 
among the forces in the field, " Those English that have gone out of Nor- 
wich with Lt. Browne and about S(^ Pequots and some Mohegans."* 

Lieut Mason, also, had a hundred or more of the warriors of these 
tribes under his command, and marched with them to Hartford, from 
whence they joined the expedition into western Massachusetts under Major 
Treat.§ Smaller scouting parties under Uncas himself, or some of his 
family, were frequently making excursions towards the Nipmuck country, 
and bringing home prisoners or booty. 

In October the alarm increased. A portion of the enemy were retiring 
from Xarragansett to the interior, and were supposed to be gradually ap- 
proaching Norwich. The wildest rumors prevailed, and great apprehen- 
sion was excited. The power and resources of Philip and the number 
and strength of his allies were greatly exaggerated. At length a report 
came that Philip v,ith 400 men was meditating a desperate attack upon 
Norwich, and on the 15th of October the Council at Hartford ordered 
forty soldiers to march immediately to the defence of the place. The 
rumor seems to have been without foundation, but when the next levies 
were made, New London County, being considered in jeopardy, was 
exempted from furnishing its quota. A company was however organized 
from the four towns, to hold themselves in readiness for any exigency, and 
placed under the command of Capt. John Winthrop. Norwich furnished 
twenty men, to whom were joined a band of Mohegan auxiliaries, forming 
a company, with Capt. Mason and Lieut. Leflfingwell for their immediate 
officers. 

* Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 348, 49. t Ibid., 2, 355. 

i Ibid., 2, 348. ^ Ibid., 2, 366. 



108 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

On the 2(1 of November, the Commissioners declared war against the 
Narragansetts, and the whole country started into immediate action. A 
thousand men were to be raised: the proportion of Connecticut was 315 ; 
of New London County, 70; of Norwich, 18: — all to be equipped with 
arms and ammunition and to be in the field by the 10th of December. 

The rendezvous was at New London. The towns were scoured for 
provisions ; the county was embargoed for two months, and wheat, cheese, 
beef, pork, Indian corn, oats and rum were seized and sequestered for the 
army wherever they could be found in quuntities beyond the necessary 
demands of their owners. Wheat to the amount of three hundred bushels 
was hastily baked into biscuits. Ten men from every county were fur- 
nished with hatchets, instead of swords and guns, to clear the way through 
the thickets. 

Major Treat went forward with the army. Norwich was on the frontier, 
and at the mercy of hostile Lidians who might suddenly cross the Quine- 
baug and make a dashing raid upon the settlement, with every prospect of 
success, while so many of her best men were in the field. In great alarm 
she applied to the Council of War for a guard, and twenty-six men were 
accordingly detailed " to lye in garrison at Norwich." 

And now the colonies resounded with the deep echoes of the Narragan- 
sett fort fight, which gave such a mournful notoriety to December 19th. 
Eighty out of Major Treat's little army were slain or fatally wounded, 
138 more disabled from duty, and he hastened back to New London with 
his battered forces. The gallant Capt. John Mason, fearfully wounded, 
but not yet despairing of recovery, was brought by the aid of his Indian 
warriors with great care to his own home. Nine of his little company 
were killed or badly wounded, one of whom was Thomas Howard, who is 
usually classed among the first band of Norwich pro})rietors. He was left 
dead upon the field of battle. Capt. Mason also ultimately died of his 
wounds, Sept. 18, 1676.* 

This was emphatically the winter of gloom. Norwich was a garrisoned 
town ; twenty or tliirty soldiers were quartered upon the inhabitants ; a 
block-house was built ; private houses were fortified. It was a general 
order throughout the colony, that the inhabitants should carry arms and 
ammunition with them to every public meeting ; but at this time, upon the 
frontier, it was necessary to keep a loaded musket continually at hand, and 
to be well armed in passing from house to house, and especially in driving 

* Capt. Gallop of Groton, who commanded the Mohegans and Pequots, was slain in 
the battle. 

" It hath pleased God to humble us, by translating to rest out of the bod of honour 
in the service of Christ, severall worthy and valiant comandcrs and souldiers both of 
ours and yours." Letter from Gov. and Council of Mass. to Gov. and Council of 
Conn, after Narragansett fort fight. Col. Rec. Conn., 2, 399. 



HISTORY OP NOEWICH, 109 

cattle or tending sheep. The woods were suppo-ed to be haunted with 
prowling enemies. The Indians around them, quick, fearful, and imagin- 
ative as childi'en, with their rumors and fancies increased the general 
excitement. Uncas, though in the main a valuable ally to the whites, and 
attesting his friendship by numerous expeditions and blows in their behalf, 
yet conceiving that his own interest might be served by keeping his neigh- 
bors in a state of alarm, did not hesitate to make use of that advantage. 
He l)lew up the coals and cried loudly, fire ! fire ! that he might have the 
credit of quenching the tlames. This was the cunning streak conspicuous 
in the character of Uncas: tvihj is the most expressive epithet that can be 
attached to his name. 

On the 2oth of January, 1G7G, INIajor Treat left New London on a 
second expedition into the wilderness, with a force of about 300 men.* 
Mr. Fitch accompanied him as chaplain, — Uncas and his M'arriors as 
scouts. They were absent twelve days, and killed and captured about 
seventy. During this interval, Norwich experienced something more 
than rumor and panic. The tomahawk swept along her eastern border, 
and left slaughter in its track. A band of Indians, supposed to be Nar- 
ragansetts, prowling on the east side of Shetucket, killed two men, and 
carried off a young lad as prisoner. 

The only cotemporary account of this affair is contained in a letter from 
Major Palmes of New London to the Council of War, dated Jan. 29th: 

" Tills morninij early came post from Konvich with the sad intelligence of two men 
and a boy being taken and killed, who went over Showtuckett "River to spread flax, 
viz. Jos: Rockwell and his boy of 15 or 16 years ould and John Eenolls Jun. of Nor- 
wich. The said Jos: Rockwell and Renalls ware found dead and thrown downe y' 
River banke, thcirc scalps cutt off: the boy is not yett found, supposed to be caryed 
away alive. "t 

Mr. Fitch was absent with Major Treat's expedition at tlie time of this 
outrage, otherwise we might have looked for an account of it from his pen, 
as he usually kej)t the authorities at Hartford well informed of occurren- 
ces in his neighborhood. No allusion to it is to be found on the records of 
the town. The deaths of the two men are registered without notice of 
their tragic end. Tlie captive boy, Josiah Rockwell, Jr., was soon after- 
ward recovered by the aid of a friendly Indian. j 

* Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 402. Trumbull in Hist, of Conn, docs not mention this sec- 
ond expedition. 

t Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 403. 

t A mistake seems to have been made in his age. Tlis birth as registered in Norwich 
was in June, 1G62. He was therefore less than 14. The inventory of Josiah Rockwell, 
the father, was exhibited in the County Court in September, 1676. A wife and six 
children are mentioned. The oldest child was this Josiah ; the youngest not bora until 
after the father's decease. 



110 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Early in Feln'uaiy an expedition of sixty or eighty impressed men, 
from the four towns of New London County, under Capt. Denison and 
Lieut. Minor, with Mohegan and Pequot flankers, assembled at Norwich 
and marched toward Wabequasset to disperse the lurking foe in that 
quarter. After this the noise of clashing arms and tramping hosts passed 
around to the north, the seat of war being transferred to the neighborhood 
of Connecticut river. Edward Culver and his Indian scouts trailed off in 
that direction, and in this county a short period of secuiity intervened. 
The towns were nevertheless kept lively by frequent raids made by vol- 
unteer parties into Narragansett and the Nipmuck country, to hunt out the 
last remains of hostility and gather the scattered booty. 

At this period of comparative serenity, the Fast Day, appointed by the 
Council (March 22d), was kept by Mr. Fitch and his congregation with 
unexampled solemnity. This will be more particularly noticed in another 
chapter. 

Before the end of March the blast of war again veered toward Narra- 
o-ansett. Major Treat was ordered to march with a hundred men to Nor- 
wich, where recruits and provisions were to be collected for a fresh expe- 
dition against the foe. Before, however, the Major could reach the ren- 
dezvous, he was suddenly recalled and ordered to the defence of Sirasbury, 
which had been attacked by the enemy. The contemplated expedition 
was therefore consigned to the charge of Major Palmes, assisted by the 
Rev. Mr. Fitch as counselor. 

The force assembled consisted of 42 volunteers, 37 pressed men, and 
100 Indians, — three parties not well inclined to act in concert. Major 
Palmes complains of them as a disorderly company, — "every man his own 
carver,'' — and at the same time gives a side-thrust at Norwich for sending 
but 15 men, "which (he says) may well be furnished out, when 20 men 
are maintained in their place at the country's charge."* 

The Major did not himself accompany the expedition. Its officers were 
Denison, Avery, Minor, and Leffingwell, and it proved one of the most 
successful forays of the war. They left Norwich, March 27th, and re- 
turned the 4th or 5th of April, having killed and captured forty-four of 
the natives. Among the captives was the brave sachem Canonchet or 
Nanunteno, the son of Miantonomoh, who was can-ied to Stonington, and 
there shot, — the unfortunate victim of a too stern vengeance. 

In May a much larger force was raised by the colony. It was designed 
to consist of 350 men besides Indian auxiliaries, and was to be kept ini 
service as a standing army during the war. The command was assigned 
to Major Talcott. Norwich was the place of rendezvous, and tlie first 
movement -was to be made into the northern wilderness in search of the 
Pocomticks and Nipmucks. After long waiting for the necessary supplies, 



* Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 427. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. Ill 

the Major left Norwicli, June 2d, with a force of 250 English soldiers, all 
on horses, and 200 Indian warriors on foot, and reached tiadlcy on the 
8th. Mr. Fitch accompanied the army as chaplain, and the Rev. Gershom 
Bulkley as surgeon. On the march they killed and captured above fifty 
forest wanderers, sparing the women and children and sending them to 
Norwich with a guard. Hadley was attacked by the Indians, June 12th, 
and but for the presence of this force from Connecticut, of whose arrival 
the attacking party seems not to have been aware, would probably have 
been destroyed. Major Talcott went as far north and west as Deerfield 
Falls, and returned to Connecticut after an absence of eighteen days. 

Major Talcott left Norwich again on the 29lh or oOth of June, and led 
his army toward Providence, and from thence south through the Indian 
territory to Point Judith, accomplishing with vigor and rapidity the work 
he was sent to perform. This expedition was pre-eminently successful, so 
far as slaughtering and making captives of the wretched savages may be 
called success : 238 were killed or taken prisoners, and among the latter 
was a well-known female chief called the Sunkesquaw. Mr. Fitch was 
the chaplain of this tour of service also. 

Still another expedition into the Indian country was led by Major Tal- 
cott, the point of departure being this time New London, which had been 
the rendezvous of the army on its retui'n from Narragansett. They left 
New London in the latter part of July, went first to Taunton, and from 
thence turned west, following the enemy to the Connecticut. The Indians 
crossed the river at the foot of the Great Falls, on rafts, August 11th. 
Talcott reached Westfield on the 12th, but being short of provisions, he 
sent back his horses and all his force except sixty soldiers and as many 
Indian warriors, and with these pursued the retreating foe to the Housa- 
tonick. He overtook them on the west side of that river, August 15th, 
killed and captured a considerable number, and dispersed the rest. He 
then returned to the settlements, half-famished and worn down with 
fatigue and exposure. This was the expedition afterwards distinguished 
as " the long and hungry march."* Its whole course was from New Lon- 
don to Taunton, and from thence through the wilderness to nearly the 
western limit of Massachusetts, and back to Hartford. 

In the meantime Philip had been skiin at ]Mount Hope, by a party of 
English and friendly Indians, under Caj)t. Cliurcli of Rhode Island, and 
there was very little more ligliting to be done. 

Though Connecticut suffered but slightly during this war, fi-om any 
actual attack within her borders, she certainly boi-e her full part in its 
fightings, marchings, and privations. 

* Trumbull has erroneously given this desmptivc title to the expedition of Talcott 
in June. 



112 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

We have designed to rehearse tlie incidents of Philip's war only from 
a Norwich point of view, and to enter upon them no farther than as they 
affected her inhabitants and were connected with her history. But from 
this brief statement it appears that beside the various forays upon the 
enemy by volunteers under Captains Denison, Avery, Minor, and others, 
seven successive expeditions marched from New London County into the 
Indian territory in the space of little more than a year, under the direction 
of the Governor and Council of War. 

1. July, 1G75, from New London, under Capt. Wait Winthrop, who 
met the forces from Massachusetts, and a treaty of peace was concluded 
with the Narragansetts, July 15th. 

2. Dec. 10th, from New London, under Major Treat : 300 soldiers and 
150 Indian warriors. These took part in the Swamp fort fight. 

3. Jan. 26th, 1G76, from New London, under Major Treat. The army 
went through Westerly, Charlestown, Kingston, and Wickford ; united with 
the Massachusetts forces and pursued the enemy into the Nipmuck coun- 
try ; returned, Feb. 5th, to Norwich. 

4. March 27th, from Norwich, prepared by Major Palmes, sent into 
Narragansett under Capt. Denison ; returned to Stonington, July 4th or 
6th. 

5. June 2d, from Norwich, under Major Talcott ; went to Hadley and 
Deerfield ; 250 English and 200 Indians. 

6. June 29th or 30th, the same army from Norwich, under Major Tal- 
cott; scoured the Narragansett country, and returned to New London, 
July 8th, and recruited. 

7. July 20th, from New London, under Talcott ; went first to Taunton, 
and from thence west to Housatonick river. 

Since the settlement of our country. New England has known no war 
so terrific in its features as this ; none that filled the country with such 
alarm and apprehension ; none attended with such burdensome toil both 
in marching into the wilderness and in keeping guard at home. The reg- 
ulations of the Council of War Avere exceedingly stringent. Great labor 
was expended upon fortifications ; a watch was kept night and day in 
every town through the colony, and in March, 1G76, measures of extraor- 
dinary vigilance being considered necessary, all the effective inhabitants 
of every plantation were obliged to take their turn as watches or scouts.* 

Soldiers engaged merely in defence of their own town or county, re- 
ceived no pay. The whites and Indians engaged in volunteer expeditions 
against the enemj'-, were compensated by the plunder they amassed. The 
forces raised by the colony were under pay at the foUov/ing rates : 

* Conn. Col. Kec, 2, 417. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 113 

Major, 30s. per week; Captain, 20s.; Lieut euant, IGs. ; Ensign, 14s.; 
Serj^eant, 12s.; a private soldier, 8s. 

For a horse, os. per week was allowed. 

For qnartcrage of a soldier, 5s. per week. 

Pasturage for a horse, 4c?. per day.* 

Though Norwich during the whole of Philip's Avar was kept in continual 
alarm, and the town was often changed from a quiet village to a tumultuous 
camp, yet the only actual outrage upon the inhabitants was the slaughter 
of Reynolds and Rockwell. This is a remarkable fact, considering the 
recent origin of the town and its situation upon the frontier during a bar- 
barian war. The whole colony was indeed singularly favored with exemp- 
tion from the stain of blood. The two men above named, with three that 
were slain in the neighborhood of Hartford.f were the only English per- 
sons killed while the war lasted, within the bounds of Connecticut. 

Surrenderers. During the war a considerable number of the Indians 
voluntarily gave themselves up to the English, or to the Mohegan sachem. 
Small tribes and companies, tliat Iiad been necessarily forced into some 
degree of intercourse with the hostile bands, Init had not taken arms, or 
committed any act of violence against the whites, found themselves in 
continual danger of being treated as enemies, and therefore sought pro- 
tection and safety under the shadow of the English settlements. Several 
of these companies came of themselves to Norwich, or were brought in by 
the soldiers ; others were collected by the Mohegan scouts. In August, 
1G76, no less than sixty -five men, with their retinue of old men, women, 
and children, at one time gave in their adhesion to Uncas. 

Mr. Fitch manifested a deep interest in the fate of these homeless, 
broken-spirited strangers. He earnestly requested that they might be 
settled in a community by themselves, apart from the control of Uncas 
and the debasing iniluence of heathenism. The Council of War gave a 
temporary and conditional sanction to his benevolent designs. They say : 

"Norwich gentlemen are desired to consider of a place for such as are not otherwise 
disposed of to plant on, as near as may be for Mr. Fitch to have often recourse to them 
till the General Court, or some other Court or Council, doe order or appoynt them else- 
where. "J 

It proved to be a difficult business to manage. Vagrants skulking in 
the woods, half-famished wanderers, fearfully imploring aid, the forlorn 

* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 38G. 

t These three were John Kirliy of Middletown, killed between Middlefown and 
"Wcthersfield ; Edward Elmore of East Windsor, killed at Podunk ; and Henry Dens- 
low of Whidsor. 

\ Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 475. 

8 



114 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

remnants of former considerable tribes, mecklj submitting to the hunters : 
when all these were gleaned out of the wilderness, not only the Mohegans, 
but the Pequots of Groton and the friendly tribes at or near Stonington, 
were embarrassed with the multitude of fugitives. The Council of War 
therefore appointed three Commissioners, Samuel Wyllis, James Rich- 
ards, and John Allyn, to hold a genei-al Indian convention at Norwich on 
the second Wednesday of December, and there, in concert with Mr. Fitch, 
as one of them, "to receive, dispose and settle all surrenderors according 
to order."* 

Of this meeting no special record has been preserved, though several 
allusions show that it took place. It must have displayed the greatest 
assemblage of Indians that were ever gathered at one time in Norwich, 
famous as the place has been for similar meetings. The neighboring 
tribes were summoned to appear and give account of all captives and sur- 
renderers, with the time of their coming in. Then the Committee were 
to call for their personal appearance, and "to list them by their names, 
their relations and progenies respectively." 

All young and single persons were to be settled in English families as 
apprentices for ten years. Those taken in war were to be sold as perma- 
nent bondsmen, and distributed to each county proportionably ; Avhile 
others were to be disposed of temporarily in some fit place under English 
teachers and Indian constables, and every full-aged man was to pay to the 
colony a yearly tribute of 5s. per head as an acknowledgment of subjec- 
tion. 

These wei'e rigorous terms. How far they were put into execution is 
not known, nor has the number of registered persons been ascertained. 
Some were doubtless concealed or favored by the friendly Indians. Uncas 
was accused of double dealing with his captives and dependents, — keeping 
some at hard service, accusing others falsely to the English, and instigating 
many to run away. A certain number of innocent families were registered 
by Mr. Fitch and placed under his superintendence. With i-espect to these 
the following action of the town is recorded : 

Feb. 1, 1676-7. A motion was made by the Eev. Mr. Fitch with reference to a place 
of residence for those Indians who are listed surrenderers, where they might be enter- 
tained and accommodated with hinds for their improvement in order to their comfort- 
able living till such time as some other way may be made open for tliem. 

The Town consented that they sliould settle on the hill called Wawequos, where 
they should have liberty, they behaving themselves orderly, to make the best improve- 
ment of the place for their own advantage for 4 years without any rent being de- 
manded. 

It is probable that the higldand ridge, called Waweekus, in the western 
* Conn. Col. Eec., 2, 481. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 115 

part of the town, near the present line of Bozrah, was tlie place designed 
for this Indian settlement. From some cause not explained, the project 
failed of accomplishment. A few families may have been gathered upon 
the hill, but if so they were soon dispersed. The kind-hearted JMr, Fitch 
labored hard for his poor Indians, yet with unsatisfying results. Out of 
the hundreds that surrendered during the war, only one village consisting 
of about thirty families was actually established, and this was on a reserv- 
ation, laid out by the town for this express purpose, between the rivers 
Shetucket and Quinebaug, where Owaneco and his people had formerly 
sojourned. 

This settlement was effected during the winter and spring of 1G78. 
The Indians, known afterwards as the Showtuchets, were provided with 
corn and other necessaries to begin life anew, and a fort was built for 
their protection. Mr. Fitch, in his report of the business to the Genei'al 
Court, observes : 

"I am sufficiently informed there are a considerable number more abiding wiiii 
Uncus, who are doubtless willing to come and settle with the others, but are meerly 
hindered by Uncus."* 

It was hoped that this remnant of a subdued race would take root and 
prosper and grow into a permanent conmaunity. They had comfortable 
wigwams, and were furnished with some of the tools and conveniences of 
civilized life. But the settlement seems to have languished for a few 
years, and finally tapered into extinction. The enmity and intrigues of 
Uncas were alone sufficient to deaden its prosj)erity. At its outset, one 
of the men was waylaid and murdered, and though Uncas endeavored to 
fasten the deed upon the Mohawks, Mr. Fitch believed that it was done 
with his connivance and by some of his agents. 

In the meantime Norwich was harrassed with Indian fugitives. It is 
probable that the well-known benevolence of Mr. Fitch allured many of 
these troublesome dependents to the town, but their thriftless habits and 
pilfering propensities could not be long endured. At length a vigorous 
effort was made to clear them all away, except those that were engiged as 
family servants. 

Nov. 12, 1G78. In town meeting an order was passed, requiring the 
Selectmen to remove forthwith all Indians from the town plot. Twelve 
days warning was to be given, and if, after that, any inhabitant should 
allow them to remain on his home-lot or pasture near the town, he was to 
pay a line of twenty shillings. Similar orders were reiterated from time 
to time, yet a few families of resident Indians continued in the town until 
they slowly melted away. Several wigwams remained far into the next 
century. One of the last that decayed was on the hill not fai' from the 

* Conn. Col. Koc, 2, 591. 



116 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

spot wliei-c the Marsh house stands, the place bemg still known to aged 
people as the wigivam pasture. It was a part of Leffingwell's grant. 

MR. fitch's prater FOR KAIN. 

The summer of 1676 was remarkable for a long-continued drought. It 
was particularly severe in the southern part of Connecticut ; the fields of 
Indian corn were parched, and the Mohegans were apprehensive that they 
should lose their whole ci'op. They had recourse to powwows, incanta- 
tions, and various heathenish rites, but could get no rain. At length they 
ai)plied to Mr. Fitch, entreating him to intercede with the Lord of the 
harvest to refresh their drooping fields with the customary showers. 

Of this drought and the successful prayer for rain, an account is given 
under Mr. Fitch's own hand, which he calls "a true narrative of that 
providence." 

" In August last such was the want of rain, that the Indian corn was not only dried 
and pai'ched up, but the apple trees withered, the fruit and leaves fell off as in autumn, 
and some trees seeming to be dead with that drouth; the Indians came into town and 
lamented their want of rain, and that their powows could get none in their way of 
worship, desiring me that I would seek to God for rain : I appointed a fast-day for the 
purpose ; the day being come it proved clear without any clouds until sunsetting when 
we came from the meeting, and then some clouds arose ; the next day remained cloudy ; 
then Uncas with many Indians came to my house, Uncas lamented there was such a 
want of rain : I asked whether if God should send us rain he would not attribute it to 
their powows ; he answered no, for they had done their utmost and all in vain : I re- 
plied, if you will declare it before all these Indians you shall see what God will do for 
us, for although this year he hath shewn his anger against the Englisli and not only 
against the Indians, yet he hath begun to save us, and I have found by experience 
twice in the like case, when we sought by fasting and prayer he hath given us rain, and 
never denied us. Then Uncas made a great speech to the Indians (which were many} 
confessing that if God should then send rain, it could not be ascribed to their powaw- 
ing, but must be acknowledged to be an answer of our prayers. This day they [the 
clouds] spread more and more, and the next day there was such plenty of rain that our 
river rose more than two feet in height."* 

An impression has prevailed somewhat extensively, that Uncas yielded 
at length to the eloquence of Mr. Fitch and the convictions of truth, and 
became at least a favorer of Christianity, and an outward attendant upon 
its ministrations.! This charitable inference is based upon the sachem's 
frequent promises to attend upon the preaching of the word, the bond or 
pledge to this effect signed by him at the instance of Major Talcott, and 
the impression made on his mind by Mr. Fitch's prayer for rain, as related 
above. Unfortunately the sequence of dates militates against this fiwor- 

* Relation of Mr. Fitch in Hubbard's Narrative of Indian Wars. 

t " Whether Uncas died in faith or not, I am unable to say. It is agreeable, how- 
ever, to find him at last acknowledging the God who is above, and paying homage to 
the religion of his Son." Holmes' Memoir of the Mohegans. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 117 

able judgment, and the fallacy of the sachem, as 'My. Fitch calls his 
double-dealing, deprives us of all confidence in his promises. 

The pledge to attend on the ministry and to encourage his people to do 
the same was signed June 7, 167o. In September, 1674, Uncas sent an 
agent to Wabequisset, (Woodstock,) to meet Mr. Elliot, who was then on 
a preaching tour to the Indians, to protest against the introduction of 
Christianity among his tributaries in that region, — the agent delivering 
his message in these brief expressive terms : 

" Uncas is not well pleased that the English should pass over Mohegan river, to call 
his Indians to pray to God."* 

The character of Uncas, as drawn at this time by General Gookin, com- 
prehends only sinister and repulsive features : 

" Unkiis, an old and wicked wilful man, a drunkard and otherwise very villous ; v,-ho 
hath always been an opposer and underminer of praying to God." 

The sachem's recognition of the mighty power of God, in the success- 
ful prayer for rain, was in 1676. But in May, 1678, Mr. Fitch depicts 
his character in colors of the blackest dye. He accuses him of hostility 
to the English, and hatred of their rulers, laws, and religion ; of cunning, 
maUce, robbery, oppression, and breaking of pledges, closing the statement 
by saying that he is 

" The greate opponent of any meanes of soul's good aud concernment to his people 
and abounding more and more in dancings and all manner of heathenish impieties 
since the warrs and vilifying what hath been done by the English and attributing the 
victory to their Indean helpe3."t 

Such is the latest contemporary portrait of the sachem Uncas, drawn, 
too, by a truthful, tender-hearted, saintly man, proverbially the friend of 
the aborigines, and a benefactor to the sachem himself. It is impossible, 
therefore, for the most lenient judgment or the most ardent hope to con- 
ceive of him as a Christianized man, or even a noble-hearted barbarian. 
Yet there were some valuable points about him. He manifested a certain 
degree of native talent, a more than common share of worldly wisdom, 
and a persevering activity in securing the independence of his tribe. 
Moreover, the generous and kindly treatment which the Narragansett 
prince received from him, while in his power as a captive, ought to be 
placed to the credit of the Mohegan chief. Miantonomoh confessed that 
he had nothing to complain of in this res])ect, and that the courtesy he 
had experienced was beyond the connnon degree of consideration in such 
cases. 

* Gookin's Hist. Col. of tlic Indians, 
t Conn. Col. Kcc, 2, 593. 



118 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The savage character of Uncas is by no means an exponent of that of 
his tribe. Whatever they may have been in the days of their heathenism, 
for the last hundred years they have been noted as a civil, teachable, act- 
ive, and intelligent people. "With the sachem himself the inhabitants of 
the town always sustained amicable relations, and his tribe, the Mohegans, 
from the earliest period of the settlement to the present day, may be called 
favorites with the people of Norwich. They have been looked after with 
almost parental care, and the men of most influence in the town, on all 
public questions, have taken their part, against the state and against 
opposing tribes. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Church History. The Meeting-IIouse on the Hill. Mr. Woodward's 
Settlement. Grave-Yards. 

The Meetinp:-house Green or Plain was originally somewhat larger 
than it is at the present day. A considerable slice, where the post-office 
and several dwelling-houses stand, was cut off from the common in 1 G84, 
and given to Capt. James Fitch, as an addition to the home-lot bestowed 
on him by his father. The first meeting-house stood near the south-west 
corner of the Green, not far from the dwellings of the minister and mag- 
istrate, and forming with them the three corners of a triangle.* It is not 
probable that this primitive church had either steeple, porch, or gallery. 
We may conjecture that a sun-dial stood near the door, and perhaps a 
horse-block. Without doubt it was furnished with a pulpit, though no 
tasseled cushion supported the open Bible. In all probability long benches 
were used instead of pews, — the men sitting on the right hand of the min- 
ister, and the women on the left. A choir of singers was then unknown ; 
the deacon read off the lines, and the congregation followed in tuneful 
quavers. 

In 1GG8 a small rate Avas collected to pay Samuel Lothrop "for repaii- 
ing and heightening the meeting-house." But this first rough-hewn edifice 
could not long satisfy the demands of the growing town. It was in use 
only twelve or fourteen years. 

In 1 G73 tlie town contracted witli John Elderkin to build forthwith a new 
meeting house. The site fixed for it was the summit of the hill, towering 
over the Green, and looking east and west toward the two ends of the town- 
plot. The country was at this period in a disturbed condition. The at- 
mosphere was dark with the shadows of approaching evil. On the west- 
ern border of New England the Dutch had assumed a threatening attitude, 
and several of the larger Indian tribes appeared surly and vindictive. 

In this posture of affairs, if a new meeting-house was to be built, the 

* We learn the situation from incidental allusions attcrwiinls made to the i)lace u'liere 
the old meetinrj-house stood; as in the following item : 

1684. " Granted to Capt. Fitch, a gusset of land from tlie S. E. corner of the old 
mcetin<c-house to the corner of his father's home-lot." 



120 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

prudence and foresight of the managei-s would lead them to select for it 
" ail aj)propriate site. On this elevated platform it could not be easily sur- 
prised, and it might serve as a watch-tower, an arsenal, and a garrison- 
post, as well as a house of worship. 

The building committee were Deacon Plugh Calkins, Ensign Thomas 
Leflingwell, Ensign Thomas Tracy, Simon Huntington, and William 
Backus. It was completed in the course of two years. Elderkin had 
contracted to build it for £428, but the expense exceeding his estimate, he 
presented in town meeting the following petition : 

Christian Friends and Neighbors, — 

Your humble petitioner pleadeth your charitie for the reasons hereafter expressed. 
Gentlemen, it is well known that I have been undertaker for building of the meeting- 
hoiis, and it being a piece of work very difficult to understand the whole M'orth and 
value off, yet notwithstanding I have presumed to doe the work for a sertain sum of 
money, (to wit,) 428 pound, not haveing any designe thereby to make myself rich, but 
that the towne might have there meeting-hous dun for a reasonable consideration. But 
upon my experience, I doe find by my bill of cost, I have dun said work very much to 
my dammage, as I shall now make appear. Gentlemen, I shall not say much unto 
you, but onely if you may be made scncible of my loss in said undertaking, I pray for 
your generous and charitable conclusion toward me, whether it be much or little, I 
hope will be well excepted from your poor and humble petitioner. 

John Elderkin. 

The town declared themselves to be at this time greatly l)urdened by 
the necessity of raising the £428 ; but as a compensation for the gallery 
of the new meeting-house, they granted Elderkin a tract of land "at 
Pocketannuk's Cove's mouth." 

Mr. James Fitch having provided nails for this meeting-house, to the 
value of £12, "wherein his forwardness for the use and benefit of the 
town, is owned and accepted," liberty was granted him to take two hund- 
red acres of land, as a satisfjxction for the same, viz., "100 in the crotch 
between Quinebaugand Showtucket, and 100 as convenient as he can find 
it, on the other side of Showtucket river." 

The situation of this meeting-house was very imposing. Perched like 
a citadel upon its rocky height, with perpendicular ledges, or abrupt, stony 
declivities on either side, it presented a formidable and secure aspect, and 
was the center of vision to both ends of the town. The difficulty of access 
was such as to require climbing rather than walking. Without doubt the 
wayfarers often caught hold of shrubs by the path, to assist in pulling 
themselves up, and aged people felt their way, planting the staff firmly at 
each step. 

In winter it must liave been a cheerless sanctuary, even when the 
approach was not obstructed by icy foot-paths and incumbent snows. 
Churches in those early days were always comfortless in cold or stormy 
weather. They had no apparatus for warming ; neither fire-place, stove, 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 121 

nor furnace, The women carried heated stones or bricks in their muffs, 
and the men put their feet into fur bags, or moccasins, with which many 
of the seats were provided. At a later date, foot-stoves were used. 
xTo this churcli, until all fear of the Indians had passed away, the men 
'of the congregation were accustomed to repair with muskets upon their 
shoulders, which were not, however, carried into the house, but stacked 
without and kept under watch and guard by some person conveniently 
stationed for that purpose. The regular soldiers, or militia-men, went in 
last, and sat near the door, to be ready in case of alarm. 

Swords were customarily worn when in full dress, by persons both in a 
civil and military capacity. Hats were made with a broad brim and a 
steeple crown. Perhaps two or three at the church door reverently took 
off a " black beaverett," though that was a costly article in those days, and 
considered quite magnificent. The poorer sort of people wore buff-caps, 
knit from woollen yarn, often in gay colors, and crowned with a heavy 
tassell. The coat was made with a long, straight body, falling below the 
knee, and with no collar, or a very low one, so that the stock or neck-cloth 
of spotless linen, fastened behind with a silver buckle, was fully displayed. 
In warm weather it was not considered indecorous to go to meeting in 
one's shirt-sleeves, or to take off the coat when there. 

It is not probable that any one of the inhabitants assumed such a degree 
of state and dignity as to wear a ruff, though that article was in vogue 
among people of rank, as were also hand-ruffles. A conspicuous wrist- 
band with sleeve-buttons was more common. 

It is uncertain whether the small clothes had then begun to groxv, so as 
to reach below the knee, and to be fastened with knee-buckles, or not. 
The earlier mode was to have them terminate above the knee, and to be 
tied with ribbons. The common kind were made of dressed deer's leather. 
Petticoat trowsers of striped linsey-woolsey, the leg short and loose, were 
a customary article of evei-y-day dress among the common people. 

Red woollen stockings were much admired. The shoes were coarse, 
clumped, square-toed, and adorned with enormous buckles. If any boots 
made their appearance, prodigious was the thumping as they passed up 
the aisles, for a pair of boots were then expected to last a man's life. The 
tops were short, but very wide ; formed, one might suppose, with a special 
adaptation to rainy weather, — collecting the water as it fell, and holduig 
an ample bath for the feet and ankles ! 

Wigs were not then common ; it was at a later day that hats were 
trinnned with gold lace, and full-powdered wigs were worn, and scarlet 
ro(iuelaurs adorned a few distinguished characters. Long liair was getting 
into vogue. It was combed back from the forehead, and gathered behind 
into a club or queue, wound with a black ribbon. A congregation of such 
men, in frugal, respectable attire, with their brave, manly brows, fronting 



122 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

their minister, worshiping God upon the high rock that overlooked their 
settlement, must have been a solemn and majestic sight to superior 
beings. 

But our great-grandmothers are also here : they come decently, but not 
gaudily dressed. They have finery, but they leave it at home on the Sab- 
bath. The more respectal)le matrons have all a full dress of flowing bro- 
cade, embroidered stomachers, and hanging sleeves, but it is reserved for 
feasts and gi-eat civic occasions. They are dressed on the Sabbath, per- 
haps, in short gowns and stufF-petticoats, with white aprons of linen or 
muslin, starched stiff. The gown-sleeve is short, and they wear mittens 
extending to the elbow, and leaving the fingers with a part of the thumb 
bare. The cloak was short, with a hood to cover the head, and was called 
a riding-iiood. The hood was thrown back in meeting, and those who 
wore bonnets took them off. The matrons wore caps, and the young 
women had their hair curled or otherwise dressed. 

The feminine attire, though in general plain and somewhat uncouth, 
was of a purer type than some of the fashions of later generations. It 
might even be called graceful and becoming in comparison with the short 
waist, the low neck, the high head-cushion with its wings or lappets flaunt- 
ing in the wind, and the huge calash, of the next century. 

Rank, birth and station were held in high account, and customs of def- 
erence and precedency were carefully maintained. It is a fact not easily 
explained, tliat such stiff and stately notions should have been cherished 
in a community where there was so little disparity of wealth and com- 
fort. 

Mr. was a title of respect awarded only to those who held office in 
church or state, or were of the rank commonly called gentlemen. Mrs., 
Mistress, Dame, and Madam, were the feminine titles of honor, bestowed 
charily and only in accordance with family rank, saintly character, and 
venerable age. 

The minister was simply Mr. The title of Reverend Avas seldom be- 
stowed, except in such phrases as our reverend pastor. Church-members 
almost invariably called each other brother and sister. 

Goodman and Goodwife were in common use. Goodey was sometimes 
heard. Gaffer and Gammer, old Saxon words of address to the aged, are 
not found on our records. Neighbor was a common adjunct. Parents 
were uniformly called daddy and mammy, even by people of mature age. 

It can not be doubted that an able scholar and expert penman like Mr. 
Fitch would keep an ample and accurate record of his little church in the 
wilderness. Unfortunately no such record is to be found. One document, 
hoAvever, belonging to the period of his ministry, having been put in print, 
is extant, and of great interest. This is the Covenant made, or renewed, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 123 

by the cliurcli on the day of the pubhc Fast in the spj-ing of the year 
1676, while the war with PhiHp and the Narragansetts was yet in prog- 
ress, and the hearts of the people were solemnized by a succession of des- 
olating judgments. 

"We intend, (says Mr. Fitch,) God willing:, to take that very daye solemnly to 
renew our covenant in our church state, according; to the example in Ezra's time, and 
as was sometime practised in Hartford congregation by Mr. Stone, not long after Mr. 
Hooker's death. If other churches doe not see cause to doe the same, yet wee hope it 
will not hee offensive ; but doc verily conclude if that bo rule for practice, this is a 
time when the Providence of God does in a knocking and terrible manner call for it."* 

This Covenant renewed is one of the most intensely searching, spiritual 
and apostolic documents to be found in our New England annals. It is 
admirable as a composition, and in this respect likewise creditable to its 
reverend author.f 

It contained the following specific engagements : 

1. That all children from 8 or 9, to 13 years of age, should be presented in the pub- 
lic Congregation every Lord's Day to be catechised. 

2. That after 13 years of age, while they remained under the family government of 
parents or others, they should attend a private meeting of religious instruction provided 
for them. 

3. That when grown up and at their own disposal, they should be required to take 
hold of the Covenant of their Fathers, or at least should use means to prepare them- 
selves for it ; if negligent in this particular they were to be admonished ;. and if obsti- 
nately so, to be "cut off from the Congregation by the dreadful ordinance of excom- 
munication." 

4. That, as parents were commonly too indulgent to their children, and negligent 
in admonishing and restraining them, the Church should appoint certain Brethren to 
take notice of the behaviour of young persons, warning and admonishing both them 
and their parents, at first in private, but if that were ineffectual, to make public com- 
plaint of them. 

5. That the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be observed once in six 
weeks. 

6. That Brethren of the Church should solemnly pledge themselves to rebuke and 
admonish one another faithfully according to Christ's order, taking notice of all offen- 
sive behaviour, and suffering no sin to rest unreproved upon a brother. 

7. That this Covenant should be publicly read once every year on a day of fasting 
and prayer, and that it sliould be enjoined on their children to do the same. 

This Covenant appears to have been faithfully rehearsed before the 
church, agreeably to the last specification, and confirmed or acquiesced in 
for thirty years. 

* Letter to the Council, March 13th. Conn. Col. Rec, 2, 417. 

t A printed copy is lodged in the Pastoral Library of the First Society. See also 
App. to Oilman's Bi-centennial Discourse, and Sermon by Eev. H. P. Arms, Norwich 
Jubilee, p. 254. 



124 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

It was reviewed by a committee of tlie church, Xov. 10, 1706, and three 
clauses of limitation and explanation affixed to it, which, on being pre- 
sented to the church, "passed with a very full vote." These provisos 
were as follows: 

1. " Whereas it is said in y= first particular of y" Covenant, y" Cliildren shall be 
presented every Lord's day to be Catechised,— The Brethren of this Church do now 
see cause to alow y' y" Children shall be Catechised upon a week day." 

2. " Whereas it is said, The Church doth appoint some Brethren to take notice of 
such children &c.— The Brethren doe now agree to suspend acting according to sd par- 
ticular, for ye present, and untill they see good cause and reason for it." 

3. " Respecting ye Third Particular in sd Covenant ye Brethren look upon it to be 
this. That ye persons therein intended shall be exhorted and excited privately and pub- 
licly to take hold of the Covenant of their Fathers ; or at least y' they be in ye use of 
all gospel means to prepare for the same." 

This instrument Avas again discussed and sifted at a church meeting, 
June 30, 1709, and a declaration made to this effect: That they and their 
children were bound to the performance of the duties enjoined in the Cov- 
enant, because they were required by the Word of God, but they were 
not bound by virtue of said Covenant ; and that they would continue in 
the faithful performance of those duties, as explained and limited in 1706, 
but the reading of the Covenant might henceforth be discontinued. 

Difficulties were soon experienced with respect to collecting the minis- 
ter's rates. It had been arranged that every inhabitant should himself 
carry in his proportion annually, on or before the 20th of March, and for 
a time this mode answered well. But after a few years the deficiencies 
became so progressive and obvious as to call for the rebuke and interfer- 
ence of the town. 

Jan. 7, 1686. 

Whereas the Select men and some others have presented to us the great need, reason 
and necessity for us to consider of some suitable but thorough way of doing what ye 
law of God and man and duty obliges to, viz. the discharge of that obligation wee lye 
under with respect to the maintenance of our Rev'^ minister, and in that it appearing 
unto us that ye great lenitie of the Rev'' Mr. Fitch towards some is too much abused 
and in that many are got into a way of slightiness and remissness in making of duo 
payment not only what is their just due but allsoe of what they are able, now therefore 
that we might all be more thorow soe as the work of God may not fail amongst us tis 
now unanimously agreed that for time to come the rate be put into the Collectors hands 
and each man to account with them and no man to be cleared until by the Collectors 
the rate be crossed and each one to clear his rate by the first of Feb. or March an- 
nually. 

To be payed one third in wheat at 4s. per bu. one third in rye or pease at 3s. and one 
third in Indian corn at 2s, or what is equivalent. 

At a subsequent period the town made an attempt to support the min- 
istry by monthly contributions, but it ended in a return to the legal com- 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 125 

pulsorj mode. As a general rule, the collectors were instructed to leave 
out sucli poor men and widows as they should judge ought to be exempted 
from the rate. 

In 1694, Mr. Fitch was suddenly disabled from .preaching by a stroke 
of the palsy. This led to the following action : 

At a town meeting Sept. 12, 1694. 

Inasmuch as it hath pleased God to lay his afflicting hand upon our Reverend pastor 
Mr. James Fitch that at present he is disahled with respect to the work of the minir-try 
among us — Wherefore the towne appoint Left. Thomas Leffingwell, Left. William 
Backus, Simon Huntington Sen"". Thomas Adgate and Eichard Bushnell a Committee 
to treat with Mr. Jabez Fitch with respect unto his succeeding of his father in the work 
of the ministry among us. 

Mr. Jabez Fitch had just completed his course of study at Cambridge, 
and was twenty-two years of age. He consented to occupy the pulpit of 
his father on trial. A vote was passed "to pay the charge of sending for 
him from the Collidge," and a rate allowed for his salary. After remain- 
ing with the people more than a year, the town declared themselves well 
satisfied and invited him to become their permanent minister. He declined 
a settlement, though his reasons are not found on record. A second invi- 
tation was extended to him in August, 1696, but with no better success. 
It is probable that he wished for a longer course of preparation before 
taking charge of a parish.* 

After Mr. Jabez Fitch, several other candidates were tried. The most 
popular was Mr. Henry Flint, a graduate of Harvard in 1693. His min- 
istry was so highly acceptable and useful, that a record was made in the 
town books, acknowledging him as a special gift of Providence, in the fol- 
lowing words : 

" The good providence of God succeeding our endeavours hath sent Mr. Flint unto 
us, for which we have reason to bless God, and doe desire he may abide with ns half a 
year more or less, that he may have further tryall of us, and wee of him ; — and that he 
may stay as long as may be judged expedient for probation." 

The next April, by "a full and free vote," he was invited to settle as a 
permanent pastor, upon the following pecuniary conditions : 

Teems offeked to Mr. Flint in Apkil, 1697. 

Fifty-two pounds per year and his board while he remains without family. When 
he hath a family, 60 loads of wood annually and 70 pounds : that is .50 pounds in 
money and 20 in work or grain. If it please God to prolong his life after the death of 
Mr. Fitch then to increase his salary as his circumstances may need and as it shall be 

* Mr. Jabez Fitch was subsequently elected Tutor and Fellow of Harvard College, 
which may be considered honorable testimony in favor of his scholarship. In 170.3 he 
was ordained at Ipswich as colleague of the Kev. John Kogers, but removed afterward 
to Portsmouth, ^'. 11., where he died in 1746. 



126 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

esteemed the providence of God enableth the town. One half the annual salary to be 
paid Dec. 1 and the other May 1. — 150 acres of land to be given to him at Plain 
Hills. 

These offers were not accepted. They were repeated in September, 
and again declined. The correspondence was not recorded, but left on 
file, and in the lapse of time has disappeared, leaving us in ignorance of 
the grounds of Mr. Flint's refusal.* Not long afterward, a special rate 
was levied to defray " the expense of sending hither and thither for min- 
isters, and also to pay arrears due to Mr. Jabez Fitch, Mr. Emory, Mr. 
Morgan and Mr. Flint." 

Aug. 29, 1698. The preamble of a vote alludes to the melancholy fact 
that the town is "yet destitute of a preaching minister;" and nine persons 
v^ere designated as a committee, who, iji concert with the Rev. Mr. Fitch, 
were authorized to look out for a pastor. 

This reference to Mr. Fitch shows that his mind still retained its vigor, 
and that his people were in the habit of resorting to him for counsel and 
direction. Nor were they unmindful of his support. After he was disa- 
bled from service, a rate was annually collected for his use, amounting to 
forty, fifty, and one year to seventy pounds. There can be little doubt 
that he was favored also with many free-will offerings, and that his people 
were studious to please and gratify him in the choice of a successor. 

During this interval, measures were again taken for enlarging and re- 
pairing the meeting-house. A Leanto was added, in which several new 
pews were made, and these not being sufficient to accommodate the increas- 
ing congregation, leave was given to twelve persons, who petitioned to 
that effect, " to build a seat on the Leanto beams, for their convenient sit- 
ting on the Lord's dayes." All these improvements being completed, in 
March, 1698, the Townsmen and Goodman Elderkin, the carpenter, were 
engaged to arrange the pews into eight classes, according to their dignity. 
This being done, five of the oldest and most respected inhabitants, viz.: 
Lt. Thomas Leifingvvell, Lt. William Backus, Deacon Simon Huntington, 
Thomas Adgate, Sen., and Serg. John Tracy, were directed to seat the 
people with due regard to rank: "the square pue to be considered first in 
dignity ; the new seats and the fore seats in the broad ally next, and alike 
in dignity ; " and so on through the eiglit classes. 

In 1702 the house was again reseated, and "a paper vote" was taken 
who should sit in the square pew and tlie seat next to it, and the persons 
so seated were to arrange the remainder of the inhabitants. 

A similar custom prevailed in all the settlements. When the meeting- 

* Rev. Henry Flint never settled over a parish. He was Tutor in Harvard College 
from 1705 to 17.54, and died Feb. 13, 1760, aged 84. 
Mass. Hist. Coll., 10, 165. Spraguc's Annals, 1, 116. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 127 

house was finished, a committee was appointed to " dignify the seats," and 
establish the rules for seating the people. 

Usually the square pew nearest the pulpit was the first in dignity, and 
next to this came the second pew and the first long seat in front of the 
pulpit. After these the dignity gradually diminished as the seats receded 
from the pulpit. If the house was furnished, as in some instances, with 
square pews, on each side of the outer door, fronting the pulpit, these were 
equal to the second or third rank in dignity. The front seat in the gallery 
and the two highest pews in the side galleries were also seats of consider- 
able dignity. 

The rules for seating were formed on an estimate of age, rank, office, 
estate list, and aid furnished in building the house. These lists were oc- 
casionally revised, and the people reseated, at intervals probably of three 
or four years. 

Frequent disputes and even long-continued feuds were caused by this 
perplexing business of seating a congregation according to rank and dig- 
nity. 

Various incidental allusions and items of expenditure furnish hints that 
assist the imagination in reconstructing this old meeting-house on the hill. 
It had leantos or wings on two sides, a porch to shelter the door in front; 
was furnished partly with pews and partly with benches ; had a double 
gallery, with corner seats for the tithing-man, overlooking the whole audi- 
ence ; and was crowned with a pyramid for a steeple or spire.* The 
windows were probably formed with lead casements, and panes of glass 
diamond-shaped.f 

Though standing on a high ])latform, it was partially sheltered by 
cliim|)s of rock, covered with shrubs and trees, that bristled the surface of 
the hill at a short distance east and west of the building. We may sup- 
pose that it faced the Green, and presented an appearance not unlike the 
design on page 129. 

In the latter part of 1G98, ]Mr. Joseph Coit was engaged to sup[)ly the 
pulpit, and after a few months probation, was invited to settle. Ihe 
committee who communic-ated this resolution to Mr. Coit, receivt^d from 
him an answer, which they reported in town meeting, in the following 
words : 

" "We have received a writing from Mr. Coit, in which he dolh expressly declare his 
disagreement from Norwich church, and consequently he can not walk with tliom, for 
how can two walk together, if they be not agreed ? — But lie that in maUer.s controver- 

* There was an order in 1 705 " to mend the pyramid and close the leanto roofs where 
they join to the body of the house." 

t Windows of this kind long remained in a few old buildings in Norwich. They 
were small and of the same form as the panes of glass, — a rhomb, or diamond-shaped. 
Sash casements, and glass with square corners, were of later introduction. 



128 HISTORY OF NORWICH, 

sial doth set up his own opinion in opposition to the Synod Book, and a cloud of wit- 
nesses, will be in great danger to wander from the way of peace and truth. Biit as 
for us, let us please one another, in that that is good, and may be for edification. 
Voted." 

Mr. John Woodward was their next candidate, and a vote was passed 
to "call him to office." He accepted this call, and was ordained in Octo- 
ber, 1699. 

Ihe church organization in the days of Mr. Fitch not only extended 
over the nine-miles-square, but took in the new settlements of Windham 
and Canterbury. IMr. Woodward's parish was at first of the same extent. 
The church records now extant begin with his ministry. The first per- 
sons who, after his ordination, "Publickly owned ye Covenant of Grace," 
were — 

Mr. John Fitch, of Windham. 
Mr. Joseph Bradford. 

Abigail, ye wife of Brother Thomas Baldwin. 
Jabez Perkins. * Isaac Lawrence. 

This accession was in 1700. The same year, Mr. Fitclt above named 
was received into full communion, as were also Thomas Baldwin and John 
Birchard. 

The first child baptized by Mr. Woodward was 

Margaret ye Daughter of Brother Jolin Elderkin, 2d. 12 m. 1700. 

This in our style would be Feb. 2, 1701. A compai-ison of births and 
baptisms shows that children were then baptized at an early date, gener- 
ally the first or second Sabbath after birth, being presented, when the rite 
was performed in public, by the father only. 

The town having agreed to provide Mr. Woodward Avith a parsonage, 
purchased the house and home-lot of Samuel Huntington for his accom- 
modation. It was the former residence of Capt. Jam.es Fitch, and sold 
by him at the time of his removal to Canterbury. Mr. Huntington was 
now preparing to remove to Lebanon, and therefore willing to part with 
his recent purchase. Out of the lot the town reserved an acre and a half 
for "a common burial place." This was soon opened for interments, and, 
with an adjoining lot since purchased, is still used as the Society Burial 
Ground. 

In 1715 the town ordered this new burial-place to be surveyed, and its 
boundaries marked by mere-stones. It remained long uninclosed. Tlie 
first persons known to have been interred here were Deacon Simon Hunt- 
ington, and his grandson of tlie same name, a young man who was killed 
by the bite of a rattlesnake. According to tradition, the venomous ser- 
pent darted its fangs into his foot while he was mowing in the meadow, 
near the spot where he was interred. The Aveather was hot, the blood of 



MISI'ORY OF NORWlCa. 
CHURCH ON THE HILL,— 1676-1715. 



129 




the youth inflamed with exercise, and the poison exhibited its deadly 
power almost instantaneously. His body became swollen, his flesh turned 
purple, and he died in a few hours. 

Head-stones of rough granite, standing as sentinels to these graves^ 
have their inscriptions still legible, and, with a similar memorial to the 
memory of Thomas Adgate, are the oldest grave-stones in the town. 



DEACON 


S I 1 


M ON 


HUNT 


INGT ON 


DY 


ED J 


VNE 


ye 


28. 


1 7 


6 


JE. 


7 7- 





HERE LIES 
THE BODY OF 
DEACON THOMAS 
ADGET. WHO 
DIED JVLY 1707 
IN ye 87th YEAR 

OF MIS AGE. 



SIMON 


HVNTINGTON 


DYED JVLY 


29. 1707 


AGED 2 1 


YEARS. 



Three others of the first proprietors were interred in this ground, and 
have their graves indicated by legibly inscribed stones : Thomas Water* 
9 



130 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

man, John Post, and Stephen GifFord. The first Thomas Leffingwell was 
undoubtedly buried here, but he has no memorial. 

Before the purchase by the town of this Huntington lot, the only place 
in Norwich known to have been uled as a cemetery was that which is 
called the 

POST AND GAGER BURIAL GROUND. 

Sarah, the wife of Thomas Post, died in March, 1661, and is supposed 
to have been the first person who deceased after the settlement of the 
town. She was buried on the home-lot of her husband, and the place of 
her interment was soon after sequestered and appropriated by the town 
authorities, for the common burial-place of the inhabitants. It was re- 
corded Dec. 16, 1661. 

Memorandum. 

The Towne hath purchased a burying place of Thomas Post, vide a parcel! of land 
eight rod one way and five and a half rod the otlier way in the home lott of the said 
Thomas Post towards the reare of his lott ajoining to tlie west side of goodman Gadgers 
lott, the said Tliomas Post allowing a higliwaj' of six feet broad to the burying place. 

To this area an addition was afterward made from the adjoining lot of 
John Gager, and in 1693 the burying-place was recorded as an irregular 
oblong plot, the extreme length eleven rods, and the greatest breadth 
seven. 

In 1697 the town granted to Samuel Gager "twelve acres of land on 
Connecticut Plains, in consideration of the land taken out of his father's 
home-lot for a burial-place." 

The Post home-lot remained in the possession of the family for one 
hundred and twenty-five years. It was then sold by Jbseph Post of Leb- 
anon to Ezekiel Barrett. The deed of conveyance, dated April 14, 1775, 
after describing the bounds, has this clause : 

"Excluding about 32 rods of land within the said bounds, belonging to the town of 
Norwich, being the old burying ground, with liberty of a pent way across my otlier 
land, from the town street to the above bargained premises, to pass and repass." 

This is perhaps the latest record respecting the old Grave Yard. It 
seems never to have been fenced or separated from the adjoining lots, and 
becoming gradually identified with them, has been occupied as private 
property. 

After the year 1700, very few interments were made in this ground. 
The Gager family lay in a group near the south-east part of the plot. 
Several rude head-stones, with initials and perhaps a date, were formerly 
to be seen here, but the only regular grave-stone known to have been set 
in this burial-place was that of Mr. Samuel Gager, who died in 1740, and 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 181 

in accordance with his special request was laid here by the side of his 
ancestors. His monumental slab, with a broad-winged face graven at the 
top, and overshadowing the inscription, was standing, though in a broken 
and leaning condition, tottering to its fail, in the year 1825, when the fol- 
lowing epitaph was taken from it : 

By the Bodies of his Parents 
Here lies the Body of 

MR. SAMUEL GAGER. 
A steady counsellor, a friend to piety ; 
was an enemy of vice, a lover of 
pure public worship, and being blessed 
with long life left this world with 
a comfortable hope of life eternal, 
on the 11th day of June 1740, 
In the 86th year of his age. 

A few fragments are all that now remain of this stone, and no other 
inscribed blocks, or even the suggestive memorials of grassy hillocks, 
remain to indicate the treasures that have here been deposited. 

In very few instances are the graves of the first generation of our set- 
tlers distinguished by coeval monuments. The men of that age, encom- 
passed with labors and privations, exhausted in laying the foundations of 
society, had no leisure to cultivate the monumental arts, and rear tombs 
and columns over their falling comi)anions. But the more favore^ inhab- 
itants of a later day, the prosperous sons of these laborious fathers, have 
a debt of grateful reverence to pay, which should lead them to preserve 
the sacred dust from dishonor and cherish with reverent awe tlie sepul- 
chres of the fathers. 

An opinion has been current of late years, that the persons interred in 
this ancient Cemetery were principally friendless people, infants, Indians, 
and a few individuals of the Post, Gager, and other neighboring families, 
that died soon after the settlement. But wliere then, it may be asked, are 
we to look for the graves of nearly the whole of the first generation of 
settlers ? The second ground was not opened for interments till forty 
years after the settlement. It would be a very moderate computation to 
assume that during this period the deaths of all ages in the town-plot 
averaged three per year, — more probably it Avas four or five, — and we 
know of no other place where even one of them was laid but in this com- 
mon burial-ground. 

Several of the proprietors emigrated to new towns in the neighl)orhood, 
but of those who were undoubtedly laid in the grave at Norwich, and who 
died before 1700, we may name the following: 



132 HISTORT OP NORWICH. 

William Backus, the elder, dying before 1663. 

Francis Griswold, 1671. 

Major John Mason, and his wife, Mrs. Anna Mason, both dying in 
1672. 

Capt. .John Mason, son of the Major, fatally wounded at the Narragan« 
sett fort fight in December, 1675, and dying in 1676. 

John Bradford, 1675. Samuel Hyde, 1677. 

Wilham Hyde, 1682. Nehemiah Smith, 1685. 

Lieut. Thomas Tracy, 1685. John Elderkin, 1687. 

Thomas Bliss, 1688, and his son, Thomas Bliss, Jr., 1681. 

Jonathan Royce, 1689. 

John Olmstead, the first physician of the town, 1689. 

Hugh Calkins, 1690. 

The first Christopher Huntington, 1691. 

John Baldwin, (unknown.) 

Richard Edgerton, 1692. 



CHAPTER X. 

Town Clerks. Patent. Neighboring Towns. Major Fitch. 

John Birchard has been already mentioned as the first Town Clerk 
or Recorder of Norwich. The second, and first of whose appointment 
any record has been found, was Christopher Huntington, elected in 1G78, 
and retained in office until his death in 1691. Richard Bushnell was 
chosen his successor in December of that year, and between him and 
Christopher Pluntington, 2d, the son of the former Christopher, the oflice 
alternated irregularly, to the 6th of December, 1726, when Isaac Hunt- 
ington, the son of the second Christopher, was chosen to the clerkship, 
and retained the ofiice till removed by death in 1764. During this period 
of thirty-five years, at the annual meetings, the question was regulaily 
put by the moderator — " Will the to\n\ now proceed to the choice of a 
Clerk ? " — and uniformly decided in the negative ; it being understood 
that the then incumbent was to be continued until a successor was ap- 
pointed. 

After the death of Isaac Huntington, the clerkship was assigned for 
one year to Benjamin Huntington, Senr., of the same generation with 
Isaac, but the next year it came back to the family of Isaac, and was 
awarded successively to his son Benjamin, and his grandson Philip, and 
his great-grandson Benjamin, continuing in this line to the year 1830, 
when the records were removed to Chelsea, and a Clerk chosen from that 
society. Thus six generations of Huntingtons, in a right line, held the 
clerkship, from 1678 to 1830, — 152 years; with a single exception in 
1778, when Samuel Tracy was chosen to office for one year.* 

The Town Clerk was also generally, if not uniformly, the Clerk of the 
First Ecclesiastical Society, from the first formatiou of that society, as 
distinct from the town, to the year 1828. 

In 1684, the list of estate as returned to the General Court was £6,265. 
Number of taxable persons, 115. 

* Tlie experience of New Haven furnishes a similar instance of pcri:)etuity in office. 
Tliree successive Samuel Bishops — father, son and grandson — held the office of Towa 
Clerk of New Haven for 85 years, from 1717 to 1801. Elisha Munson, nephew of the 
last of these Samuel Bishops, who had acted as his clerk, succeeded him, and continued 
in oflSce till 1832. The four held the office 116 years. 



134 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

In 1685, a patent was obtained which confirmed to the town the original 
tract of nine miles square, to be an entire township, " according to the 
tenor of East Greenwich, in Kent, in free and common soccage, and not 
in capite, nor by Knight's service." 

PATENT 

OF THE TOWN OF NORWICH, A. D. 1685. 

Whereas the General Court of Connecticut have forever granted unto the proprietors 
and Inliabitants of the Towne of Norwich all those lands, both meadows and uplands, 
within these abuttments (viz.) from the mouth of Tradeing-cove Brooke the line to run 
as the Brooke to the head of the Brooke to a white oake marked N : and from thence 
west northwesterly to a great pond to a black oake marked N : which stands neere the 
mouth of the great Brooke that runs out of the pond to Norwich river, which is about 
seven miles from the said Tradeing Cove ; and from thence the line runns North noreast 
nine miles to a Black oake standing by the river side on the south of it, a little above 
maumeagway, and from thence the line runs south southeasterly nine miles to a white 
oake standing by a brooke marked N : and then the line runs south southwesterly nine 
miles to a white oake neere Robert Allyn and Thomas Rose's Dwelling houses, which 
tree is marked N : and from thence westerly as New London Bounds runs to Mohegan 
river, the whole being nine miles square, the said land haveing been by purchase or 
otherwise lawfully obtayned of the Indian natives proprietors. — And whereas, the said 
Inhabitants and proprietors of the s'^ Norwich in the Colony of Connecticutt have made 
application to the Governo'' and Company of the s'^ Colony of Connecticutt assembled 
in Court May 25"", 1685, that they may have a patent for the confirmation of the afore^* 
land, so purchased and granted to them as aforesaid, and which they have stood seized, 
an& quietly possessed of for many years late past, without interruption. Now for a 
more full confirmation of the aforesd unto the present proprietors of the s"^ Towneship 
of Norwich in their possession and injoyment of the premises, know yee that the s^ 
Governour and Company assembled in Generall Court according to the Commission 
Granted to them by his magestie's charter, have given and granted and by these pres- 
ents doe give, grant Rattifie and confirme unto Mr. James Fitch sen', Capt. James 
Fitch, Mr. Benjamine Brewster, Lieut. Thomas Tracy, Lieut. Tho. Leffingwell, Mr. 
Christopher Huntington, Mr. Simon Huntington, Ensign William Backus, Mr. Thomas 
Waterman, Mr. John Burchard and Mr. John Post, and the rest of the said present pro- 
prietors of the township of Norwich, their heirs, successors and assigns forever ; the 
aforesaid parcell of land as it is Butted and Bounded, together with all the woods, 
meadows, pastures, ponds, waters, rivers, islands, fishings, huntings, fowleings, mines, 
mineralls, quarries, and precious stones, upon or within the said tract of land, and all 
other proffitts and comodities thereunto belonging, or in any wayes appertayning ; and 
Doe also grant unto the aforesd Mr. James Fitch, sen"", Capt. James Fitch, Mr. Ben- 
jamin Brewster, Lieut. Thomas Tracy, Lieut. Thos. Leffingwell, Mr. Christopher 
Huntington, Mr. Simon Huntington, Ensign Wm. Backus, Mr. Thomas Waterman, 
Mr. John Birchard, and Mr. John Post, and the rest of the proprietors. Inhabitants of 
Norwich, their heirs, successors and assigns forever, that the fores'^ tract of land shall 
be forever hereafter deemed, reputed and be an intire towneship of itself — to have and 
to hold the said tract of land and premises, with all and singular their appurtenances, 
together with the priviledgcs and immunities and franchises herein given and granted 
unto the say* Mr. James Fitch sen', Capt. James Fitch, Mr. Benjamine Brewster, 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 135 

Lieut. Thomas Tracy, Lieut. Thomas Lcffingwell, Mr. Christopher Huntington, Mr. 
Simon Huntington, Ensign Wm. Backus, INIr. Thomas Waterman, Mr. John Birchard 
and Mr. John Post, and other the present proprietors, Inhabitants of Norwich, theire 
heirs successors, and assignes for ever, and to the only proper use and bchoof'c of the 
sayd Mr. James Fitch sen"', Capt. J;imes Fitch, Mr. Benjaraine Brewster, Lieut. 
Thomas Tracy, Lieut. Thomas Leflingwell, Mr. Christopher Huntington, Mr. Simon 
Huntington, Ensign Wm. Backus, Mr. Thomas Waterman, Mr. John Birchard and 
Mr. John Post, and other proprietors, inhabitants of Norwich, their lieirs, successors, 
and assigns for ever, according to the Tenor of East Greenwich in Kent, in free and 
common soccage and not in capitte, nor by Knite's service, they to make improvement 
of the same as they are capable according to the custom of the country, yielding, ren- 
dering, and paieing therefore to our sovereign Lord the king, his heirs and successors, 
his dues according to Charter. In witness whereof, we have caused the Scale of the 
Colony to be hereunto affixed this twenty-first of May, 1685, in the first yeare of the 
reigne of our sovereigne lord James the Second, by the grace of God, of England, 
Scotland, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the faith. 

ROBERT TREAT, Governor. 
''— "-'-^ March 30'^, 1687, per order of Gov^ and Company of the Colony 

\ SEAL, i of Connecticutt. 
N_--v-^^ Signed pr 

John Alltn, Seerety. 
Entered in the pub. records, Lib. D : fo. 138, 139, Nov 27*, 1685 : pr 

John Alltn, Secrcty. 

Twelve Patentees were chcsen by the town ; but from some cause un- 
known, Thomas Adgate, who was one, is not named in the instrument as 
recorded on the town books. They will all be recognized as belonging to 
the original band of proprietors, with the exception of Capt. James Fiteh 
and Mr. Benjamin Brewster. 

In January, 1702, a fresh enrollment of the inhabitants was made, in 
connection with "An Act for the more equal Division of the Common 
Lands." This list seems to have been made with great care, and we may 
rely ujjon it as nearly accurate. It enumerates 9 surviving tirst proprie- 
tors, 7G accepted inhabitants, and 6 orphans imder age, all entitled to 
share as first settlers. Twelve other persons, who had more recently set- 
tled in the township, were entered for half shares. This would give 97 
freemen, or legal voters and proprietors, to the town. Probably the num- 
ber of actual residents was considerably larger. 

Jan : 31, 1701-2. The names of the first settlers now surviving are as followcth, — 

The Rev. Mr. James Fitch. (died 18 Nov. 1702.). 

Lev't Thomas Leffingwell. (d. 1710.) 

Deacon Simon Huntington. (d. 28 June, 1706.) 

Deac. Thomas Adgate. (d. 21 July, 1707.) 

Levt. William Backus. (d. 1721.) 

John Post. (d. 17 Nov. 1710.) 

Thomas Post. (supposed d. 5 Sept. 1701.) 

John Reynolds. (d. 22 July, 1702.) ' 

Morgan Bowers. (unknown.) 



136 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

At this time a large proportion of the outlands had been already dis- 
tributed, and were in a great measure occupied. All the better part of 
the inhabitants, in addition to their possessions in the town-plot, owned 
farms. Many of the sons of the first proprietors had settled on these 
paternal acres. The wide districts now forming the towns of Bozrah and 
Franklin, were then the Norwich farms. Several of these farm home- 
steads have descended by inheritance to the present day, and are claimed 
by virtue of the original town grant. 

Before the year 1700, several flourishing towns were growing up 
around Norwich, most of them offshoots from her trunk and nourished 
with her life-blood. 

A part of Preston was originally East Norwich. Lebanon, Windham, 
Mansfield, Canterbury, Plainfield and Griswold were daughters of Nor- 
wich, or at least drew a large proportion of their early settlers from her 
bounds. 

Though John Gates, an Englishman, is said to have erected the first 
habitation in Windham, as early as 1G89, yet the legatees of Joshua 
Uncas were the first proprietors of the land, and fourteen of these (the 
whole number being but sixteen) were of Norwich. Those who claimed 
under these legatees, the Backuses, Binghams, Huntingtons, and other 
early settlers, were the men who actually founded Windham, changing the 
wild lands of Naubesetuck to a thriving plantation. 

The first town meeting at Windham was held June 11, 1692. Among 
the town officers chosen on that occasion, seven are recognized as sons of 
Norwich proprietors, viz. : John Fitch, fourth son of Rev. James ; Thomaa 
Huntington, son of Christopher ; Joseph Huntington, son of Simon ; Sam- 
uel Hyde, Jonathan Hough, and John Royce. 

Among the first planters we find also John Backus, Thomas Bingham, 
Samuel Birchard, Benjamin Ai'mstrong, Jonathan Crane, Peter Cross, 
Samuel Giffbrd, William Moore, Robert Wade, — all removing thither 
from some part of the nine-miles-square. 

Few persons of that period had more influence in this part of the col- 
ony than Captain, or as he was afterwards styled. Major Fitch. He was 
a noted friend and patron to the Indians, and after the death of Major 
Mason, possessed more sway over tlie sachems than any other individual, 
not excepting their other distinguished advocate, Capt. Samuel Mason. 
The signature of Owaneco, subsequent to the year 1G80, was considered 
of no value unless countersigned by Capt. Fitch ; the Sachem, with the 
consent of the General Court, having authorized him to act as his 
guardian. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 137 

(From a signature of 1G82.) 




^77t^ 




Major Fitch stands forth remarkably prominent in comnection with the 
Sanded interest of eastern Connecticut. He was noted as a land-surveyor, 
Sand-registrar, land-specElator, and a land-holder to an immense extent. 
By legislative grants, by purchase from other grantees, and intimate con- 
nection with the Indian sachems, he accumulated a vast number of acres. 
In 1G84, he obtained from Owaneco the native right and title to a broad 
tract of unsettled land, comprised under the gcEcral name of ""the Nipmug 
and Wabaquassuck countreys." The southern line of this territory, be- 
ginning at the Quinnabaug river, north of the present town of Brooklyn, 
and running west, was estimated at forty-five miles, and from this western 
point tlie line running north extended beyond the northern boundary of 
Massachusetts. 

Out of this tract, the town of Pomfret was purchased of Capt. Fitch for 
thirty pounds. It was called the Mashamoquet Purchase, and consisted 
of fifteen thousand one hundred acres, which was assigned by Fitch to 
certain proprietors, May 5, 1686, the deed being countersigned by Owan- 
*eco and Josiah. 

In 1687, Owaneco conveyed to Major Fitch, parcels of land in the 
towns of Plainfield and Canterbury, of such extent as also to be measured 
by miles. A mortgage deed, executed in favor of Simeon Stoddard of 
Boston, Nov. 19, 1691, maps out a portion of Major Fiteh's accumulated 
land claims. 

1st. A tract ^' in the crotch of the rivers Showtuckett and Queenabauge," 
a mile and a fourth on one river, and nearly three miles on the other, now 
the southeni part of Lisbon. 2d. Four thousand acres, in two parts: two 
thousand on each side of the Quinebaug, in the present towns of Plainfield 
and Canterbury. 3d. Five thousand acres, in two parts, lying south of 
New Roxbury, alias Woodstock. 4th. A cultivated farm of two hund);ed 
acres in Preston. 

Following Miijor Fitch by his various deeds on record, we might sup- 
pose that during a part of his life he changed his local habitation with 
every revolution of the sun. On one occasion he is spoken of as an 
inhabitant of Preston. 

In 1697, he writes himself, "I, James Fitch of Norwich." 

In 1698, "I James Fitch of Peagscomsuck."* 

* Deed recorded at Norwich. 



138 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

In 1699, "I James Fitcli of Kent, alias Peagscomset."* 

In 1701, "I James Fitch of Plainfield,"t 

In 1703, "I James Fitch of Canterbury." 

But though Major Fitch had farms and dvvelKng-houses in several town- 
ships, and seems to have circulated freely through his possessi&ns, he re- 
tained his connection with Norwich as a legal inhabitant down to the year 
1697. He then removed his family to Peagscomsuck,]: on the Quinebang 
river, — a plantation that he designed should be called Kent. The name, 
however, obtained but a limited currency,, and was soon changed to Can- 
terbury. Of this town he was pre-em.inently the founder. He purchased 
the land, made the first clearings, laid it out in farms and house-lots, and 
built himself the first barn and the first framed house within its limits. 
Pie drew after him fxxjm Norwich other substantial settlers : the names of 
Backus, Bradford and Tracy appearing early upon the annals of the 
tov/n. 

Canterbiiry and Plainfield grew up like twin plantations, side by side. 
Major Fitch was one of the first proprietors in each. Mr. Joseph Coit 
was the herald of the gospel to both communities, and for several years 
preached alternately at either place* Plainfield was incorporated in 1S99 j 
Canterbury, in 1703^ 

Major Fiteh and his brother Daniel were highly esteemed as brave 
soldiers and experienced partizans in Indiaji warfai-e. In the summer of 
1696, a band of MohaAvks committed some depredations on the western 
tawns in Massachusetts, and a rumor having reached Capt. Fitch that a 
party of them had been seen skulking about Woodstock, he hastened frona 
his farm to Norwich,, collected a band of whites and Mohegans, and 
plunged into the forests in pursuit of the enem.y. From Woodstock, h© 
sent a part of his force under his brother Daniel, to range the woods fur- 
ther to the west, which they did, scouring the country as far as Oxford^ 
Worcester, and Lancaster. 

Tradition and record give intimations cf one defect in th.e character of 
the gallant Major. He could not always resist the temptation to convivial 
excess, but he appears to have had the Christian grace to acknowledge the 
fault when committed,, and repent of it. He continued his connection witk 
the Norwich church long after his removal to Canterbury, and perhaps till 
his death. He was under the temporary discipline of the NxDrvvich church; 
in 1704. 

Yale College honors Major Fitch as one of its earliest patrons. He 



* Deed recorded at Ne^sr London^ 

t At New London : deed to Massvah Harding and Richard Cooke, of Eastham^- 
1000 acres in Plainfield, Cooke sold to Elislia Payne. 
X This -was the Indian name, of an island in the river,, near which. h,e s,e.ttlB<l. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 139 

contributed to the funds gathered for its first estabhshment, gave the glass 
and nails for the college editice, and endowed it with 637 acres of land in 
the town of Killingly. 

He was twice married, and had thirteen children. His first wife, Eliz- 
abeth Mason, died in 1G84. He married, second, May 8th, 1687, Alice, 
daughter of Major William Bradford of Plymouth, and relict of Rev. 
"William Adams of Dedham. She was sister of Thomas Bradford of 
Norwich, and mother of Rev. Elinhalet Adams of New London. 

Major Fitch died in Canterbury, Nov. 10th, 1727. His youngest son, 
Jal)ez, born in 1702, was a respected inhabitant of Newent Society, where 
he filled the offices of justice, judge, and colonel. 



CHAPTER XL 

Brief Memorials op the Proprietors and their Descendants. 

We have now reached the period when the first class of settlers disap- 
pear from the scene. One generation has passed away, and another is 
rapidly verging towards the down-hill of life. 

Before dismissing this venerated band to their last resting-place, the 
few facts which have been ascertained respecting each proprietor will be 
rehearsed, with brief notices of his family, and glances at some of his 
descendants. 

I. Major John Mason. 

Every memoir of Mason is obliged to take him up at the prime of life, 
for of his birth,* parentage, and early years, no certain information has 
been obtained. When he first appears in history, he is in the English 
army under Sir Thomas Fairfax, fighting in the Netherlands in behalf of 
the Dutch patriots, against the bigotry and tyranny of Spain. 

He is supposed to have emigrated to this country in 1630, with Mr. 
Warham's company that sailed from Plymouth, England, March 20th, 
and arrived at Nantasket May 30th of that year.f But this can not be 
stated with absolute certainty, as he has not been actually traced on this 
side of the ocean before December, 1632, when he was engaged in a 
cruise with John Gallop, under a commission from the Governor and 
Magistrates of Massachusetts to search for a {)irate called Dixy Bull, who 
had for some time annoyed the coast with petty depredations. He was 
then called Lieutenant Mason, but soon afterward attained the rank of 
Captain. J In 1 634, he was one of a Committee appointed to plan the 
fortifications of Boston Harbor, and was specially employed in raising a 
battery upon Castle Island. 

In March, 1635, he was the representative of Dorchester to the General 
Court, but in the latter part of the same year, or early in the next, removed 

* That he was born about 1600, may be inferred from his age at the time of his 
death, — upwards of 70 in 1672. 
t Prince's Chronology. 
} Life of Mason, by Ellis. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 141 

with the major part of Mr. Warham's people to the Connecticut Valley. 
Here the emigrants planted themselves on the western bank of Connecti- 
cut river, above Hartford, and founded the pleasant and honorable town of 
Windsor. 

With the residence of Capt. Mason at Windsor, all the stirring scenes 
of the Pequot war are connected. This was the great event of the early- 
history of Connecticut, and the overshadowing exploit of Mason's life. 
He was instrumental in originating the expedition, formed the plan, fol- 
lowed out its details, fought its battles, clinched, as it were with iron 
screws, its results, and wrote its history. This war was begun and ended 
when Connecticut had only 250 inhabitants, comprised principally in the 
three towns of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor. Out of these Mason 
gathered a band of seventy men, and passing down Connecticut river, 
landed in the Narragansett country, and being joined by a band of friendly 
Indians, marched directly into the heart of the hostile territory, assailed 
the Pequots in their strongest fortress, destroyed it, laid waste their dwel- 
lings, and killed nearly half of the whole nation. This expedition occu- 
pied three weeks and two days. The skill, prudence, firmness and active 
courage displayed by Mason in this exploit, were such as to gain him a 
high standing among military commanders. From this period he became 
renowned as an Indian fighter, and stood forth a buckler of defence to the 
exposed colonists, but a trembling and a terror to the wild people of the 
wilderness. 

In 1637, he was appointed by the General Court the chief military 
officer of the colony, his duty being "to train the military men" of the 
several plantations ten days in every year: salary, forty pounds per 
annum.* At a later period, [1654,] he was authorized to assemble all 
the train-bands of the colony once in two years for a general review. 
The office was equivalent to that of Major- General. He retained it 
through the remainder of his life, thirty-five years, and during that time 
appears to have been the only person in the colony with the rank and title 
of Major. 

When the fort at Saybrook was transferred by Col. Fenwick to the 
jurisdiction of the colony. Mason was appointed to receive the investment, 
and at the special request of the inhabitants he removed to that place and 
was made commander of the station. Here he had his home for the next 
twelve years. 

The people of New Haven were not entirely satisfied with their loca- 
tion, and formed a design of removing to a tract of land which they had 
purchased on the Delaware river. In 1651, they proposed this matter to 

* " The saidc Capt. Mason shall have liberty to traine the saido military men ia 
every plantation tcau dayes in every ycere, soe as it be not in Juno or July." Conn. 
Col.Rec., I, 15. 



142 HISTORY OP NOEWICH. 

Capt. Mason, urgently requesting him to remove with them, and take the 
management of the company. This invitation is a proof of the high 
opinion his contemporaries had formed both of his civil and military tal- 
ents. The offers they made him were liberal, and he was on the point of 
accepting, when the Legislature of Connecticut interfered, entreating him 
not to leave the colony, and declaring that they could by no means con- 
sent to his removal. Finding that his presence was considered essential 
to the safety of Connecticut, he declined the offers of New Haven. If he 
went, there was no one lefl who could make his place good ; neither had 
New Haven any person in reserve, who could fill the station designed for 
him, and therefore the projected settlement never took place. The active 
disposition of Mason, however, never lacked employment. There was 
scarcely a year in which he was not obliged to go on some expedition 
among the Indian tribes, to negotiate, or to fight, or to pacify their mutual 
quarrels. At one time, his fiiithful friend Uncas was in danger from a 
powerful league of the other tribes, but the seasonable preparations of 
Mason for his relief, frightened the foe into peace and submission. At 
another time, he was sent with arms and men to tlie assistance of the 
Long Island Indians, against Ninigrate, the powerful sachem of the Na- 
hanticks, who threatened them with extirpation. This service he gallantly 
performed ; but only two years afterwards was compelled to appear again 
on that Island with a band of soldiers, in order to chastise the very Indians, 
mischievous and ungrateful, whom he had before relieved. 

"We find him, at the same .time, and for several years in succession, 
holding various public offices, all arduous and important. He was Indian 
agent, Indian umpire, and the counselor of the government in all Indian 
concerns ; captain of the fort, justice of the peace, and empowered to hold 
courts {fs a judge ; a member likewise of two deliberative bodies, the Con- 
necticut Legislature, and the Board of Commissioners of the United Col- 
onies ; Major-General of the militia at home, and the acting commander 
in all expeditions abroad. In 1G60 he was chosen Deputy Governor, to 
which office he was annually re-elected for eight years, five under the old 
form, and three under the King's charter, which united Connecticut with 
New Haven. The same year he was actively employed, in conjunction 
with Mr. Fitch and othei-s, in effecting the settlement of Norwich, and 
also in purchasing of the Mohegans a large tract of land, in behalf of the 
colony. 

At this time also, for nearly two years, he performed all the duties of 
the chief magistrate of the colony, — Winthrop, the Governor, being absent 
in Enu;land, engaged in negotiations respecting the charter. 

Thus the life of Mason on this continent may be distributed into four 
portions. The first was given to Dorchester, and the remainder in nearly 
equal parts to the three towns in Connecticut that he assisted in planting. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 143 

Lieutenant and Captain at Dorchester, five and a half years. 

Conqueror of the Pequots, magistrate and major at Windsor, twelve 
years. 

Captain of the fort, and Commissioner of the United Colonies at Say- 
bjrook, twelve. 

Deputy Governor and Assistant at Norwich, twelve. 

He was not chosen Deputy Governor after 1668, but continued in duty 
as an Assistant, and was pi'esent for the last time at the election in Mav, 
1671. 

Of the original band of Norwich purchasers. Mason was one of the 
•earliest laid in the grave,* He died Jan. 30, 1671-2. According to 
Trumbull, he was in the seventy-third year of his age. His last hours 
were cheered by the prayers and counsels of his beloved pastor and son- 
in-law, Mr. Fitch. Two years before, he had requested his fellow-citizens 
to excuse him from all further public services, on account of his ao-e and 
infirmity ; so that the close of his life, though overshadowed by suflfering 
from an acute disease, was unharrassed by care and responsibility. There 
is no coeval record that points out his burial-place, but uniform tradition 
and current belief in the neighborhood, from generation to generation, 
leave no reason to doubt that he was interred where other inhabitants of 
that generation vrera laid, that is, in the Post and Gager Bui'ial Ground, 
or First Cemetery of Norwich. 

He had been for twelve years an inhabitant of Norwich, It was his 
chosen home, and no urgent motive can be assigned for his interment else- 
where. Moreover, it was mid-winter, when a traveling procession in a 
new country, with the imperfect accommodations of that period, Would 
have been almost impracticable. Had he been removed, under such cii'- 
cumstances, to any other place for interment, (to Saybz-ook or Windsor, 
for example,) the event would have been of public notoriety throughout 
the colony, and must inevitably have been recorded somewhere in the 
annals of the day. 

All the probabilities therefore are in fovor of his having been buried in 
Norwich. And if so, where ? Not in a quiet nook in some portion of his 
own ground, for solitary private interments were not common in those days 
and if the renowned Capt. Mason had been entombed in his garden or his 

* Richard Hendy had deceased before this period, but no prominent proprietor, ex- 
cept William Backus, Sen. The precise date of Mason's death is ascertained from a 
cotcmporary journal kept by Rev. Simon Bradstreet of New London, whose record is 
as follows : 

"Jan: 30, 1671 (0. S.) Major Jno. Mason who had severall times been Deputy 
Govern' of Connecticot Colony dyed. He was aged about 70. He lived {he 2 or 3 
last years of his life in Extrcam misery with ye stone or strangury or some such dcscase. 
He dyed with much comfort and assur° it should be well with him." Hist, and Gen. 
Reg., 9, 46. 



144 HISTORY OP NORWfCE. 

field, would all knowledge of the fact have been completely obliterfSfed 
from history, memory, and tradition ? Would his sons have sold their 
inheritance without recording the fact that it contained their father's sep' 
ulchre, and stipulating that bis ren>ains should be respected ? We may 
take it for granted therefore that Mason was buried in the common place 
of sepulture with his friends and neighbors.* 

In that primitive cemetery, the only memorials ejected in honor of the 
dead were a grassy hillock, and a block of unhewn granite at the head and 
foot of the grave. No squared pillars or chiseled inscriptions decorated 
this humble spot. The stones gradually stink into the earth, or were 
removed by those that knew not they had any watch to keep ; the graves 
wore away to a level with the field, and then a little belovir it, and long 
before the end of another century, the ploughshare and the seedsman 
passed over and obliterated every vestige of grave and monument from 
the place. 

Mason is one of the prominent figures in our early history. He shines 
forth as a valiant soldier and a wise counselor. He was prudent, and yet 
enterprising ; fertile in resources ; prompt and heroic in the field of action. 
The natural ardor of his mind, fostered by early military adventures, and 
continually called into exercise by great emergencies, made him a fearless 
leader in war. Sturdy in frame, and hardy in constitution ; regardless of 
danger, fatigue, or exposure ; he was invaluable as a pioneer in difficult 
enterprises, and a founder of new plantations. He was also a religious 
man and a patriot ; of virtuous habits, and moderate ambition. Though 
he sustained many high and honorable offices in the infant colony, he is 
best known by the simple title of Captain. Trumbull comprises his 
peculiar traits in these few words : " He was tall and portly, foil of martial 
fire, and shunned no hardships or dangers in the defence and service of 
the colony." 

His sign manual seems expressive of his massive person and bold de* 
cision of purpose. 



/^S/ 




* This argument, seemingly unnecessary, is prompted by the doubts and surmisetf 
that have been broached respecting the place of Mason's burial. Such doubts appear 
to the author entirely baseless. They have originatpd, doubtless, from the absence of 
grave-stones and the obliteration of hillocks in tliis old burial-place. The meditativs 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 1-15 

Yet viewing the character of Ma?!on at this distance of time, we become 
aware of some rigid and imperious features. Though faithful to his con- 
victions of duty, lie was stern and unrelenting in the execution of justice, 
and as a magistrate and commander, dictatorial and self-reliant. 

Roger Williams, in his correspondence with Winthrop of New London,* 
refers to Mason in terms wdiich lead us to infer that the latter, as a neigh- 
bor, was not particularly acceptable to other plantations : 

" Since I mention Capt. Mason, worthy sir, I humbly beg of the Father of Lights 
to guide you in youre converse and neighbourhood with him." 

" Sir, heape coales of fire on Capt. Mason's head, conquer evil with good but be not 
cowardly and overcome with any evill." 

Again, alluding to dispatches that he had received from Capt. Mason, 
he says : 

" The'letters are kind to myself but terrible to all these natives, especially to the. 
sachims." 

Uncas and his tribe were peculiarly the wards and adherents of Mason,, 
and he seemed pledged to defend them against all complaints. Several, 
times he interfered to screen his favorite sachem from punishment, for his. 
insolent bearing towards the neighboring settlements, or for his depreda-- 
tions upon private property ; but towards other native clans, Mason was 
often a severe and exacting ruler. In September, 1639, he broke up with 
ruthless determination a small settlement of the Pequots, whose only 
offence was, that they had huddled together at Pawcatuck, upon the skirt 
of their former domain, and were endeavoring to obtain a comfortable 
subsistence. With about forty of his own men, and a horde of Mohegans- 
under the command of Uncas, he made a sudden descent upon the village, 
dispersed the terrified inhabitants, or took them prisoners, plundered and: 
burnt the wigwams, destroyed all the goods and provisions that could not 
be removed, and returned with thirty canoes, taken from the natives and 
filled with their plunder. They found a harmless people, prospering by 
means of their corn-fields and fishing-boats; they swept over the scene,, 
and left nothing but flight, terror, and desolation. 

It was probably an act of sagacious foresight, but not of true heroism*. 
We would willingly blot it out of the history of our gallant captain. Yet 
it must be conceded that undue severity to the aborigines was then a part 
of the law of the land, and not a peculiarity in the character of Mason. . 

mind very naturally asks itself, — Can it be that this bold Connecticut pioneer has been . 
left in this unnoticed spot for nearly 200 years, without a stone to mark his grave 1 
After wonder at this forgetfulness, comes a doubt of the fact. Yet there is but this one 
place pointed out by tradition, and this is sustained by all the attendant circumstances.. 

* "Winthrop Papers in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d scries, 9, 278. Letters of 1648-9. 
10 



146 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

"We may be disposed to charge him with crueUy to a vanquished foe ; but 
the same taint lies on most of the early colonists. He only shared in the 
ferocious character of the age, and we may add, in that misconstruction of 
the sj)irit of Christianity, which devoted its enemies to immediate and vin- 
dictive destruction. 

Of the first marriage of Capt. Mason, no date or specification has been 
recovered. A memorandum in the old Church Book at Windsor gives 
the number of those who had died in the plantation before the year 1 639, 
and mentions as one of them, the Captain's wife. No other inhabitant is 
known to have had at that time the title of Captain, and therefore this 
may be pronounced, without hesitation, the wife of Mason. In July, 1639, 
he was married to Anne Peck, who was the mother of the seven children 
recorded at Norwich, which list is supposed to comprise his whole oflf- 
spring. 

Mrs. Anne Mason died at Norwich, before her husband. A memorial 
sermon, preached by Mr. Fitch, represents her as a woman of eminent 
piety, and "gifted with a measure of knowledge above what is usual in 
her sex." 

" I need not tell you, (says the preacher,) what a Dorcas you have lost; 
men, women and children are ready with weeping to acknowledge what 
works of mercy she hath done for them."* 

The family is registered at Norwich, with this heading : " The names 
and ages of the children of Major Mason." The day of the month is not 
given, nor the place of birth. The list is as follows : 

Pri3cilla, born in October, 1641. 



Samuel, 


" July, 1644. 


John, 


" August, 1646. 


Rachel, 


" October, 1648, 


Anne, 


" June, 1650. 


Daniel, 


" April, 1652. 


Elizabeth, 


" August, 1654. 



'The first three were probably born in Windsor, the others at Saybrook. 

Of this group, three were ingrafted into the Fitch family. Rev. James 
Fitch married for his second wife, in October, 16G4, Priscilla Mason; John 
Mason, 2d, married Abigail Fitch ; and James Fitch, 2d, married Ehza- 
l)eth Mason, Jan. 1, 1676. 

* Printed at Cambridge by Samuel Green in 1672. But neither the date of Mrs. 
Mason's death, nor the time when the sermon was preached, is stated. The title page 
•simply refers to her death as preceding that of her husband. 

"A Sermon preached upon the occasion of the Death and Decease of that piously 
affected and truly religious Matron, Mrs. Anne Mason, sometime wife to Major Mason 
who not long after finished his course and is now at rest. By Mr. James Fitch, Pastor 
of the Church at Norwich." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 147 

Rachel Mason became the second wife of Charles Hill of New London. 
They were married June 12, 1G78, and she died in less than a year after- 
ward. 

Anne Mason married, Nov. 8, 1C72, Capt. John Brown of Swanzey. 

John Mason, second son of the Major, succeeded to his father's accom- 
modations in Norwich. 

This gallant young Captain was severely, and as it proved, fatally 
wounded in the great swamp fight at Narragansett, Dec. 19, 1675. It is 
probable that he was brought home from that sanguinary field by his Mo- 
hegan warriors on an Indian bier. His wounds never healed. After lin- 
gering several months, he died, as is supposed, in the same house where 
his father expired, and was doubtless laid by his side in the old obliterated 
grave-yard of the first-comers. Tliough scarcely thirty years of age at 
the time of his death, he stood high in public esteem both in a civil and 
military capacity. He had represented the town at three sessions of the 
Legislature, and was chosen an Assistant the year of his decease. In the 
probate of his estate before the Countj^ Court, he is called "the worshipful 
John IMason." The Rev. Mr. Bradstreet of New London records his 
death in these terms : 

"My hon'd and dear Friend Capt. Jno. Mason one of ye magistrates of this Colony, 
and second son of Major Jno. Mason, dyed,"* Sept. 18, 1676. 

He left two young children : Anne, who married John Denison ; and 
John, born at Norwich in 1673, afterward known as Capt. John Mason, 
being the third in lineal succession who had borne the name and title. 
He is best known as an Indian claimant, visiting England to assert the 
rights of the heirs of INIajor Mason to those lands which the latter pur- 
chased as agent of the colony. His connection with this long Mohegan 
controvex'sy, will bring him at another period within the range of our 
history. 

The other sons of Major Mason, Samuel and Daniel, settled in Stoning- 
ton, on an ample domain given by the colony to their father, near the 
border of Long Island Sound. Samuel was chosen an Assistant in 1 683, 
and acquired the same military rank as his father, being known also as 
Major Mason. He was one of the four purchasers of Lebanon, but never 
removed thither. He died at Stonington, March 30, 1705, leaving 
four children, all daughters. His only son, John, died ten days before 
him, aged twenty-eight, and unmarried. The male branch in this line 
here became extinct, but the name was continued in the line of the oldest 
daugliler, Anne, who married her cousin, the third John Mason, before 
mentioned. 

* Hist, and Gen. Keg., 9, 46. 



148 HISTOEY OP NORWICH. 

Lieut. Daniel Mason, the early schoolmaster of Norwich, died at Ston- 
ington, Jan. 28, 1736-7, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His first wife 
was Margaret Denison of Roxbury, and his second Rebecca Hobart of 
Hingham. His oldest son, Daniel, married Dorothy Hobart, and settled 
in Lebanon, where he died, July 4, 1706, thirty years before the decease 
of his father, leaving only one child, an infant son, named Jeremiah, after 
his grandfather, Rev. Jeremiah Hobart.* 



IL Rev. James Fitch. 

This venerated man died at Lebanon ; a plantation in which he had 
taken great interest, and where several of his children had established 
their homes. In the quiet cemetery of that place, where almost a congre- 
gation of good and great men have since been gathered, he was laid to 
rest. The monumental tablet that marks his grave, has an elaborate 
Latin inscription, said to have been written by his son, the Rev. Jabez 
Fitch,* that furnishes a judicious and comprehensive summary of his life 
and character. « 

[translation.] 

la tills tomb are deposited the remains of tlie truly Reverend Mr. James Fitch ; born 
at Bocking, in the county of Essex, England, December 24, 1632 : who, after he had 
been well instructed in the learned languages, came to New England at the age of 16, 
and passed seven years under the instruction of those eminent divines, Mr. Hooker and 
Mr. Stone. Afterward he discharged the pastoral office at Saybrookfor 14 years, from 
whence, with the greater part of iBs church, he removed to Norwich, and there spent 
the succeeding years of his life, engaged in the work of tlie Gospel, till age and infirmity 
obliged him to withdraw from public labor. At length he retired to his children at Leb- 
anon, where scarcely half a year had passed, when he fell asleep in Jesus, Nov. 18,t 
1702, in the 80th year of his age. He was a man, for penetration of mind, solidity of 
judgment, devotion to the sacred duties of his office, and entire holiness of life, as also 
for skill and energy in preaching, inferior to none. 

Mr. Fitch is placed by Mather in his second classis of New England 
ministers, — consisting of "young scholars, whose education for their 

* Mrs. Dorothy Mason subsequently married Hezekiah Brainerd of Haddam. The 
devoted missionary to the Delaware Indians (David Brainerd) was one of the children 
of this connection. 

t Mass. Hist. Coll., 10, 68. 

X In the town book at Lebanon, Nov^ 19 is the recorded day of Mr. Fitch's death. 
Slight discrepancies in the cotemporaneous records of deaths frequently occur, and may 
sometimes result from one giving the diy of death, and another that of interment. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 149 

designed ministry not being finished, came over from England with their 
friends, and had their education perfected in this country before the Col- 
lege was come into maturity enough to bestow its laurels."* 

It appears that the father of the flimily had deceased, and that the 
mother with several sons emigrated to this country in 1638. The exact 
number of the brothers that came over has not been definitely ascertained. 
Thomas, Joseph and James can be clearly traced. But there was a coeval 
Samuel Fitch, schoolmaster at Hartford, that married, in 1650, the widow 
of the first William Whiting, and subsequently removed to Milford, who 
may have been another brother.! 

Thomas Fitch settled in Norwalk, where, in the valuation of estates in 
1665, he was the highest upon the list. J He is also the first person men- 
tioned in the Patent of that town, granted in 1685, and from him in a line 
of three generations, each bearing the same name, Gov. Thomas Fitch, 
who occupied the chair of state in Connecticut from 1754 to 1766, was 
descended. 

Joseph Fitch can be traced as a landholder, or as a temporary inhabit- 
ant, at Norwalk, Hartford, and Northampton ; but he ultimately settled at 
Windsor, upon a valuable fai-m near the boundary line of the present 
towns of East Hartford and East Windsor. John Fitch, whose name is 
iionoi'ably connected with the invention of steam navigation, was a de- 
scendant of Joseph, and born Jan. 21, 1743, near the place where his 
ancestor settled, on the Windsor part of the farm. 

Of Mr. James Fitch, our immediate subject, we have a statement of his 
birth, emigration at the age of sixteen, and seven years of theological 
instruction at Hartford, and this is all that is known of him previous to 
his ordination at Saybrook in 1646. At this ceremony, Mr. Hooker of 
Hartford was present, but the imposition of hands was by two of the 
brethren appointed by the church to that office- The same form was also 
used at the same place, at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Buck- 
ingham in 1670. § Mr. Hooker had himself been ordained in the same 
manner at Cambridge. This was a Congregational ordination in the 
strictest sense of the term. 

The element of independence thus wrought into the original structure 
of Mr. Fitch's church, was brought with it to Norwich, and has never died 
out. Though not subsequently asserting its rights in the special form of 
ordination, the congregational principle struck its roots deep, and has ever 

* Magnalia, I, 21b. Hart. Edition. 

t In Wcstcott's Life of John Fitch, it is said that five brothers emigrated, but the 
authority seems only traditionary. 
} Hall's History of Norwalk. 
i Trumbiill's Coan., I, 293. 



150 HISTOEY OF NOEWICH. 

since maintained its ground, giving something of a distinctive character to 
the church in its whole course.* 

"When a part of Mr. Fitch's church decided, in 1660, to remove to 
Norwich, it was a subject of some contention between the two parties 
whether he should stay with those who were to remain, or go with those 
who should remove. He was greatly beloved by all, and each side claimed 
him. After solemn prayer and long deliberation, Mr. Fitch decided that 
it was his duty to keep with the majority, and this brought him to Nor- 
wich. Soon after his removal thither, the people of Hartford invited him 
to become their minister, thinking, probably, that the hardships of a new 
settlement, and the prospect of extensive usefulness in a Avider and more 
elevated sphere, might induce him to leave his flock. The only reply he 
sent to their invitation was this : " With whom then shall I leave these 
few poor sheep in the wilderness ? " 

The oldest Election Sermon in Connecticut, of which any record has 
been discovered, was preached by Mr. Fitch, in 1674, from this text: 
" For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and 
will be the glory in the midst of her."t 

Other products of his pen, yet extant, are : a sermon on the death of 
Anne, wife of Major Mason, 1672, and a small volume printed at Boston 
in 1683, with an Introduction by Rev. Increase Mather, and comprising 
three distinct tracts, viz. : 

A Treatise on the reformation of those evils which have been the procaring caase of 
the late Judgments upon New England. 

The Norwich Covenant, which was solemnly renewed March 22, 1675. 

A brief Discourse proving that the First Day of the week is the Christian Sabbath. 

The multiplied labors of Mr. Fitch in behalf of the Indians, to civilize, 
Christianize, and render them comfortable, have been heretofore noticed. 
His correspondence with the Governor and Assistants was voluminous. 
Among the documents of the State, letters concerning the wayward natives 
are yet extant, bearing his signature. 

* Rev. H. P. Arms, the successor of Mr. Fitch at the present day, — the sixth incum- 
bent of the pastoral office in the old town of Norwich, — in reference to the ordination 
of Mr. Fitch, observes : 

" We retain the same principles, and hold that all ecclesiastical authority is vested 
in the individual churches^ and that while, as a matter of Christian courtesy, we ask 
the aid of a council in ordaining or deposing ministers, we accede to that council no 
authority beyond what the church delegates to it for the occasion." Norwich Jubilee^ 
p. 252. ■ % 

t Conn. Col. Eec., 2,. 222. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 151 

As a pastor, Mr. Fitch was zealous and indefatigable. In addition to 
his other labors, he trained several young men for the ministry, as he him- 
self had been trained by Mr. Hooker. Rev. Samuel Whiting of Wind- 
ham, Taylor of Westfield, and Adams of New London, received a part 
at least of their theological instruction from him. Before colleges and 
academies were established in the land, a course of study in the family of 
some experienced divine was the customary method of preparing young 
men for the ministry. 

Lebanon, we have said, was an offshoot of Norwich. Li 1GG3, Major 
Mason had a legislative grant of 500 acres of land, with his choice of 
location in the unappropriated territory of the colony. It was taken up 
"at a place called by the Indians Pomakuck near Norwich." 

The registry is found on the records of the New London County 
Court : 

"Wee whose names are under writen according to the order from the Generall Court 
wee have laid out five hundred ackers of upland and meadow for Maior Mason at po- 
macook. Thomas Tracv. 

Francis Gkiswold. 

from Norwig 1G65, the 6th [month left blank.] 

Acknowledged by Uncas sachem of Mohegaa in Court at New London Nov. 14, 
16G5. 

Pomakuck, or Poraakook, was a tract of land upon Deep River brook, 
near the boi'ders of Lebanon and Franklin, the latter being then a part of 
Norwich. In October, 166G, a grant was made to Mr. Fitch of 120 acres 
adjoining Major Mason's land at Pomakook.* To this grant, Owancco, 
the son and successor of Uncas, at a subsequent period, in acknowledg- 
ment of favors received from Mr. Fitch, added a tract five miles in length 
and one in breadth. This munificent gift was familiarly called the MUe, 
or Mr. Fitch's Mlle.-\ 

Afterward the same chief, who claimed all the unsettled lands in this 
quarter, sold to four proprietors, viz., Capt. Samuel Mason and Capt. John 
Stanton of Stonington, Capt. Benjamin Brewster and Mr. John Birchard 
of Norwich, a tract five miles square, "at a place called by the Indians 
Po([ue-chan-neeg adjoining to the Mile, so called of the Rev. Mr. Fitch." 
This deed bears date, Sept. G, 1G92, and Avas "probably executed at Nor- 
wich, the witnesses being Richard Bushnell and Thomas Adgate.J 

* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 49. 

t L. Hebard, Esq., of Lebanon, estimates the Mile to have been a mile in width, lib- 
eral measure, and about seven miles in length instead of live. It was bounded north by 
Shetucket river, and east by Norwich. 

\ Acknowledged before Samuel Mason, at Norwich, Jan. 5, 1G98-9. Recorded at. 
Lebanon, Book 1, Article 1. Endorsetl, confirmed by Gen. Ass., May, 1705. 



152 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

These various grants, with certain strips and gores purchased at a later 
date, make up the town of Lebanon. Major Mason was undoubtedly the 
first English proprietor, but not a resident. 

The distribution into lots, the occupation and actual settlement of the 
town, began in lG9o.* The number of grants and allotments bearing 
date in November of that year is about fifty. In the earliest roll of inhab- 
itants, made soon after 1700, are the names of four sons of the Rev. Mr. 
Fitch, — Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Joseph, and Eleazer. 

According to tradition, the township was named by Mr. Fitch before a 
house had been built, or a tree felled by a white man upon the tract. 
"Within the bounds of the Mile, was an extensive cedar forest, which, by 
the principle of association, assisted also by the height of the land, sug- 
gesting to the mind of its accomplished owner the Cedars of Lebanon, led 
him to bestow the name of Lebanon upon the whole tract. 

The town and its patron have reason to be satisfied with each other. 
Quiet, beautiful, dignified Lebanon ! with its broad street like a continued 
park, and its fertile farms, — the birth-place and resting-place of the two 
Trumbulls, and of Williams, equally true-hearted and patriotic, — let pil- 
grimages be made to its bounds, and wreaths, often renewed, laid upon the 
graves of the fathers and patriots that rest in its bosom.f 

To this new and interesting plantation Mr. Fitch, in the year 1701, 
retired to die. A brief summer passed in its quiet, secluded shades, led 
him gently forward to the tomb. His three youngest sons, Nathaniel, 
Joseph, and Eleazei-, early settlers of Ilebanon, repose near him, with 
head-stones to point out their graves. 

Mr, Fitch was twice married, and had fourteen children, whose births 
are all recorded at Norwich, though the first six were born in Saybrook, 
and are also recorded there, with the death of the first wife. All the 
children except Elizabeth are referred to as among the living, in the will 
of their father, February, 1696, and it is not improbable that twelve fol- 
lowed his remains to the grave. His first wife was Abigail, daughter of 
the Rev. Henry Whitefield, M'hom he married in October, 1648. She 
died at Saybrook, Sept. 9, 1659, and in October, 1664, he was united to 
Priscilla Mason, who survived liim. The date of her death has not been 
ascertained. Her signature {Priscilla Fitch) is attached, with the names 



* The name, Lebanon, was current in the neighborhood of Norwich, before it was 
given to the town. Grants at Lebanon, referring to certain parts of what is now Frank- 
lin, were recorded in 1687. The farms of John Johnson and Thomas Baldwin were 
described as "near to Lebanon," and Johnson had ten acres in Lebanon Valley. Litil^ 
Lebanon and Lebanon Hill were terms used at that period in reference to places in 
Franklin. 

t In 1850, there was no lawyer and no tavern in Lebanon. The population had 
: somewhat decreased, and was then only 1,901. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 153 

of other Mason heirs, to a quit-claim deed to rights in Mohegan lands 
derived from their ancestor Major Mason, March 20, 1710, probably 
N. S. 1711. 

The Fitch family soon became numerous, and the name -widely spread, 
owing to the preponderance of sons in the early branches. Mr. Fitch had 
himself nine sons, and his oldest son James the same number. Joseph 
had seven sons, and Nathaniel fifteen children, of whom eleven were sons. 
Eleazer, the youngest of the original family, was the only one who left no 
posterity. 

It is a little singular that not one of the sons of Mr. Fitch established 
his permanent home in Norwich. James went to Canterbury. Samuel 
settled on a farm in Preston as early as 1G87.* Daniel became an inhab- 
itant of the North Parish of New London, in the immediate neighborhood 
of Norwich, but not within its bounds. John went to Windham. Jabez 
pursued his ministerial calling at Ipswich and Portsmouth, and the four 
others took up farms in Lebanon. 

Capt. Daniel Fitch above named, of the North Parish (now Montville), 
was born at Norwich in the fifth year after the settlement, and died June 
3, 1711. His inventory shows that he owned three farms, one at Trading 
Cove, one at Dry Brook, and one lying on both sides of Connecticut path^ 
that is, the road to Hartford, through Colchester. The homestead farm at 
Trading Cove was a town grant to his father, and has never been either 
bought or sold, but has descended by inheritance to the present day, 
(18G5.) 

As a general rule, the early Fitches were men of capacity, and pros- 
perous in their worldly concerns. It was formerly a current saying 
among the farmers of the neighborhood, that the Fitches always settled 
by a stream of water, which was equivalent to saying that they were 
thriving men possessed of valuable farms. 

The five daughters of the Rev. James Fitch were connected in mar- 
riage as follows : 

Abigail with Capt. John Mason, 2d. 

Elizabeth with Rev. Edward Taylor of Westfield, Mass. 

Hannah with Thomas Meeks, or Mix. 

Dorothy with Nathaniel Bissell. 

Anna, the only daughter of the second marriage, became the wife of 
Joseph Bradford. 

Two of these daughters, viz., Abigail and Hannah, remained at Nor- 
wich. Thomas Meeks married Hannah Fitch June 30, 1677. They 
settled on the east of the Shetucket, but within the bounds of the Nine- 
miles-square. 

* Mr. Samuel Fitch died in 1725. He was the ancestor on the maternal side of As*- 
Titch, Esq., of Fitchville. 



154 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH 



By means also of intermarriages with other families of the town, Nor- 
wich still retains a large interest in the family of her first revered minis- 
ter. Not only his influence, memory, and example, but the vital current 
that quickened his frame, flows in the veins of many of her children. 

Mr. Taylor, who settled in the ministry at Westfield, Mass., had been a 
theological student in the family of Mr. Fitch. His attachment to the 
daughter probably commenced at that time. A love-letter that she re- 
ceived from him before their marriage, has been preserved,* which dis- 
plays in a striking manner the quaint and metaphorical taste of the age, — 
a taste, the decline of which can not be lamented, since it seems better 
adapted to the display of an elaborate fancy, than to express genuine feeling. 

The address was accompanied with a crude sketch of a carrier dove 
with an olive-branch in his mouth. 




This for my friend and only beloved 
Miss Elizabeth Fitch, 
at her father's house in Norwich. 



Westfield, 8 day of 7th month, 1674. 

My Dove, 

I send you not my heart, for that I trust is sent to Heaven long since, 
and unless it hath wofully deceived me, it hath not taken up its lodgings in any one's 
bosom on this side of the Royal City of the Great King, but yet the most of it that is 
allowed to be layed out upon any creature doth safely and singly fall to your share. 

So much my post pigeon presents you with here in these lines. Look not, I entreat 
you, upon it as one of Love's hyperboles, if I borrow the beams of some sparkling 
metaphor to illustrate my respects unto thyself by, for you having made my breast the 
cabinet of your affections, as I yours mine, I know not how to offer a fitter compari- 
son to set out my love by than to compare it unto a golden ball of pure fire, rolling up 
and down my breast, from which there flies now and then a spark like a glorious beam 
from the body of the flaming sun. But alas ! striving to catch these sparks into a love- 
letter unto yourself, and to gild it with them as with a sunbeam, I find that by what 
time they have fiillen through my pen upon my paper they have lost their shine, and 
fall only like a little smoke thereon instead of gilding them, wherefore, finding myself 
so much deceived, I am ready to begrudge my instruments, for though my love within 
my breast is so large that my heart is not sufficient to contain it, yet they can make it 
no more room to ride into, than to squeeze it up betwixt mv black ink and white paper. 
But know that it is the coarsest part that is couchant there, for the purest is too fine to 
clothe in any linguish huswifry, or to be expressed in words. 



* If not the original, at least a cardful copy. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 155 

The writei' then proceeds to show "that conjugal love should exceed all 
other love," but in illustrating this point he runs into the style of a sermon, 
and the lover is almost lost in the theologian. 

Mr. Taylor was a man of great erudition, and left a large number of 
MSS. behind him. One of his daughters by his second wife, Ruth Wyllis 
of Hartford, was the wife of Rev. Dr. Lord of Norwich. Another daush- 
ter was mother of President Styles of Yale College. 



III. Adgate. 

No other Adgate except Thomas is found among the original settlers of 
New England, and his name has not been traced until it appears at Say- 
brook. From whence he came, or when, and whether alone or with wife 
and children, are alike unknown. It is seldom that any name appears so 
isolated and untraceable. Tlie following record, with a registry of lands, 
and his name, as pi'esent at a town meeting in 1655, are the chief memo- 
rials of him at Saybrook. 

Children or Thomas Adgat. 
Elizabeth born the 10th of October, Anno 1651. 
Hanna bom the 6th of October, Anno 1653. 

At Norwich the same children are recorded with those of subsequent 
birth, as follows : 

Elizabeth, born in October, 1G51 ; Hannah in October, 1653; Abigail 
in August, 1661; Sarah in January, 1663; Rebecca in June, 1666; 
Thomas in March, 1669-70. 

No day of the month is given. The death of the first wife, and his 
marriage with the second, are not registered. From incidental circum- 
stances it is evident that the second wife was Mary, daughter of Matthew 
Marvin and widow of Richard Bushnell, and it is probable that the mar- 
riage took place about tlie time of the removal to Norwich. 

The five daughters married respectively, Richard Bushnell, Samuel 
Lothrop, Daniel Tracy, Christopher Huntington, and Joseph Huntington, 
all proprietors of Norwich, of the first or second generation. 

Thomas Adgate was a deacon of Mr. Fitch's church, but at what period 
chosen to that office is not known. He was older than his pastor, and per- 
haps his coeval in office. It is probable that he exercised the functions 
for at least half a century. His will, dated May 22, 1704, commences, 
" I Thomas Adgit, being in the 84th year of my age," &c. He died July 
21, 1707. Mrs. Mary Adgate, his relict, died March 29, 1713. 

The second Thomas Adgate was also deacon of the church, holding the 
office for forty-two years. He died Dec. 10, 1760, aged 91. He had two 



156 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

sons, Thomas and Matthew, both of whom had families. The former died 
in the 34th and the latter in the 81st year of his age. Most of the 
descendants emigrated to other states, and the name is now rare in this 
vicinity. Matthew, the son of Matthew, removed in middle life to a place 
called from him Adgate's Falls, in Chesterfield, New York. He was a 
member of the Convention that formed the Constitution of New York in 
1777. Asa Adgate, M. C. from Essex County, N. Y., from 1815 to 1817, 
was his son. 

"William Adgate, brother of the last-named Matthew, occupied the 
family homestead at Norwich, where he died in 1779, in the 35th year of 
his age. His relict survived him thirty-three years. Their sons Daniel 
and William had previously settled in Philadelphia, and the old residence 
of the family went into other hands.* 



IV. Allyn. 

, Robert Allyn was of Salem in 1637, and enrolled as a member of the 
church, May 15, 1642. He removed to New London in 1651, where he 
obtained a grant of a large farm on the east side of the river, at a place 
still known as AUyn's Point, but now in the town of Ledyard. He was 
one of the first company of purchasers of Norwich, and resided for sev- 
eral years in the western part of the town-plot. In 1661, he styles him- 
self of " New-Norridge," and held the office of constable in 1669, but in 
a deed of 1681 uses the formula, "I Robert Allyn of New London." 

Among the early settlers of the country, we often meet with persons 
whom it is difficult to locate. They possess lands that lap over the bounds 
of adjoining settlements, and sometimes appear to belong to different town- 
ships at one and the same time. 

Robert Allyn had doubtless relinquished his house in Norwich to his 
son John, and retired to his farm on the river, within the bounds of New 
London, where he died in 1683. His age is unknown; but he was freed 
from training in 1669, probably upon attaining the age of 60, the custom- 
ary limit of military service : this would make him about 75 at death. 

The heirs to his estate were his son John, and four daughters, — Sarah, 
wife of George Geares ; Mary, wife of Thomas Parke ; Hannah, wife of 
Thomas Rose ; and Deborah, who afterwards married John Gager, Jun. 
The son received £133, and each of the daughters £66 6s. 

John Allyn, the son, married Dec. 24, 1668, "Elizabeth, daughter of 
John Gager of New Norwich." In 1691, he exchanged his homestead 



* Origin of the name : Tlie prefix At was used to denote the residence of a person, 
as James At Well, at the well; Tom At Wood, at the wood; Will At Gate, at the gate ; 
now Atwell, Atwood, and Adgate. See Arthur's Family Names. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 157 

and other privileges in Norwich with Joshua Abell and Simon Hunting- 
ton, Jr., for lands east of the river, and transferred his residence to the 
former seat of the family at Allyn's Point. This brought him again 
■within the bounds of New London, and his name apj^ears in 1704 as one 
of the patentees of that town. He died in 1709, leaving an estate of 
£1278, to be divided between his son Robert and his daughter Elizabeth, 
the wife of Thomas Waterman. His inventory enumerates three farms 
and a trading establishment upon the river. Among the moveables are 
such articles of cost and comfort as a silver tankard, cup and tumbler, 
a silver whistle, a gold ring, a wrought cushion, and a lignum-vitte mortar 
and pestle. This was about the period when such small luxuries were 
beginning to be diffused among prosperous farmers and traders. 

With Robert Allyn of the third generation, the male line was still a 
unit. He married Deborah Avery, and died in 1730, leaving nine child- 
ren. Robert Allyn, of the fourth generation, occupied the same home- 
stead at Allyn's Point, and dying in 1760, left an estate of more than 
£3,000. His inventory of wearing apparel comprised : a blue coat with 
brass buttons ; silk jacket and breeches ; laced jacket ; boots and spurs ; 
gold sleeve-buttons and ring ; silver snuff-box ; silver buckles for shoes, 
knees and neck-bands. 

These successive inventories vividly illustrate the advance of the coun- 
try in wealth, comfort, and elegance. 

Allyn's Point, where stood the old homestead of the family, is about six 
miles below Norwich, on the opposite side of the river from the Mohegan 
fields. The ancient fort of Uncas was in full view from the house. South 
of the pond and cove is a conspicuous elevation known as Allyn's Mount- 
ain, from whence the prospect is wide and far-reaching. To this height 
the neighbors were accustomed to resort as a look-out post, when the river 
was visited by any unusual craft, or the Indians on the other side were 
gathered for council or sjiort. From this place on the memorable 6th of 
September, 1781, the conflagration of New London was witnessed by 
women and children whose husbands and fathers had hastened to the 
scene of action. Li the war of 1812, the three blockaded vessels forming 
the squadron of Commodore Decatur were laid up in the river near by> 
and on this hill his men threw up a redoubt and kept a sentry to watch 
the movements in and near New London Harbor. 



Backus. 



Little is known of the history of William Backus, Sen. He is sup- 
posed to have been living at Saybrook as early as 1637. Lithe settle- 
ment of the estate of John Charles, who died at Branford in 1673, the 



158 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

children of "William Backus received a share, in right of their deceased 
mother, who was his daughter. From this fact it is ascertained that the 
first wife of William Backus was Sarah, daughter of John Charles. 

Before removing to Norwich, he married Mrs. Anne Bingham, aiid 
brought with him to the new settlement three daughters, two sons, and his 
wife's son, Thomas Bingham. The three young men were of mature age, 
or near maturity, and are all usually reckoned as first proprietors. The 
daughters were subsequently united in marriage to John Reynolds, Ben- 
jamin Crane, and John Bayley. v 

The house-lots of the younger William and of Stephen Backus are both 
recorded as laid out in 1659 ; but the latter was the allotment of his father, 
who dying at an early period after the settlement, and the land-records 
being made at a later date, it was registered in Stephen's name, who had 
received it by bequest from his father. Hence, William Backus, Senior, 
does not appear on the town record as a land-holder. 

His \vi\\, dated June 12, 1661, and witnessed by Thomas Tracy and 
John Post, is recorded at New London, and endorsed as allowed by a 
court held in that place, June 21, 1665. The inventory of his effects is 
found among ancient court documents at Hartford, dated June, 1664. 
The date of his death has not been recovered. It is probable that it took 
place soon after the signing of the will. The slender legacies mentioned 
are suggestive of the limited resources of the settlement in its earliest 
days, and we may fairly infer from the rapid growth of the town after- 
ward, that they would have been enlarged by a subsequent addition, or 
that a fresh instrument would have been executed, had the testator sur- 
vived until 1664. That three or four years intez'vened before the settle- 
ment of the estate, scarcely militates against this supposition, when the 
circumstances of the case are considered ; the land almost a wilderness, 
the inhabitants engaged in arduous labors, the town but just organized, and 
no justices, no law offices or courts within their own bounds. 

The provisions of the will are few and simple. He has nothing to 
bequeath but his house and land, cows, corn, household stuff, and "the 
tools belonging to the trade of a smith or cutler;" and he confirms it with 
the signature W. B., instead of writing his name. 

It is interesting to observe how rapidly the settlement advanced in pros- 
perity and comfort. This family and others in the course of a single gen- 
eration grew strong and luxuriant, throwing out buds and branches of rich 
and noble growth. 

The death of Mrs. Backus is registered with the Bingham family. 

" Mrs. Anne Backus, mother of Thomas Bingham Sen. died in May 1670." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 159 

V. Stephen Backus. 

The rights and privileges of William Backus, Senior, were transferred 
so soon after the settlement to his son Stephen, that the latter is accounted 
the original proprietor. The house-lot was entered in his name, as to a 
first purchaser. It lay upon the pent highway by the Yantic, between 
the Town Green and the allotment of Thomas Bhss. 

Stephen Backus was married in December, 1666, to Sarah Spencer. 
After a residence of over thirty years in Norwich, he removed with his 
family about the year 1692 to Canterbury, and there died in 1695. His 
sons Stephen and Timothy are counted among the early settlers of that 
town. Stephen, 2d, died May 1, 1707. An agreement subsequently 
made by the heirs of the elder Stephen, has the signatures of the widow 
Sarah Backus and her daughter Elizabeth, of Timothy Backus, and of 
David Knight, Robert Green, and William Baker, who signed in behalf 
of their wives, Sarah, Ruth, and Rebecca, daughters of the deceased. 



VI. William Backus, Jr. 

The second William Backus mai-ried Elizabeth, daughter of Lieut. 
William Pratt of Saybrook. She was born Feb. 1, 1641. The date of 
the marriage is not registered at Norwich, and it is probable that the 
young couple did not remove to the new settlement till after the birth of 
their first son, William, May 11, 1660. John, the second son, born Feb. 
9, 1661-2, married Mary, daughter of Thomas Bingham. Hannah 
Backus, one of the daughters of the family, found a partner in the second 
Thomas liingham. Both marriages have the same date, Feb. 17, 1691-2. 
It was not uncommon in that day for families to be linked and interlinked 
and the knots doubled and twisted as in the case of the Backuses and 
Binghams. William Backus, 2d, is found on record with the successive 
titles of Sergeant, Ensign, and Lieutenant, thougli he styles himself, in 
deeds, simply yeoman. His will and inventory were presented for pro- 
bate in April, 1721. 

William Backus, 3d, son of the above, sold his accommodations in Nor- 
wich to his father, in 1692, and removed to "^//e nameless new toivn lying 
about ten miles N. W. of Noricich." His brother .John also emigrated to 
the same place, afterward named Windham, and both are reckoned among 
the early proprietors of that town. The present Windham Green was 
part of the original home-lot of William Backus. 

Joseph and Nathaniel, the younger sons of William Backus, 2d, re- 
mained in Norwich. Joseph married Elizabeth Huntington, and Nathan- 
iel, Elizabeth Tracy, daughters of the proprietors Simon Huntington and 



160 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

John Tracy. Joseph and Simon Backus, the first two graduates of Yale 
College of the name of Backus, were sons of Joseph. The former grad- 
uated in 1718, and some eight or ten years later was styled by his cotem- 
poraries, Lawyer Backus of Norwich. 

A large number of the Backus family have acquired distinction in the 
various walks of life. Elijah Backus, whose iron works at Yantic were 
so serviceable to the country in the Revolutionary war, was a grandson of 
Joseph. He married Lucy, daughter of John Griswold of Lyme. His 
sons, and his son-in-law, Dudley Woodbridge, were among the first emi- 
grants to the banks of the Ohio. James Backus, one of the sons, as agent 
of the Ohio Company, made the first surveys of Marietta, and is said to 
have built the first regular house in that town. He afterward returned to 
Norwich, and died at the family residence, Sept. 29, 1816. 

The second Elijah Backus, an older brother of James, graduated at 
Yale College in 1777, and for several years held the office of Collector of 
Customs at New London. His first wife was Lucretia, daughter of Rus- 
sell Hubbard, who died at New London in 1787.* He afterward married 
Hannah, daughter of Guy Richards, and removed with his family to 
Marietta, Ohio, where he died in 1811. His daughter Lucretia, born at 
New London in 1787, married Nathaniel Pope, of Kaskaskia, Illinois, 
delegate in Congress from Illinois in 1816, and Judge of the U. S. Dis- 
trict Court. Major-General John Pope, U. S. A., is their son, born March 
12, 1823. His mother, Mrs. Lucretia Pope, in remembrance of the place 
of her father's nativity and of her own early associations, came from her 
western home to attend the bi-centennial Jubilee at Norwich, in Septem- 
ber, 1859. 

Among the descendants of "William Backus, who were natives of the 
old town of Norwich, the following clergymen are of note : 

1. Simon Backus, son of Joseph, born at Norwich, Feb. 11, 1701, grad- 
uated at Yale College in 1724, and was ordained pastor of the church at 
Newington in 1727. He attended the expedition to Cape Breton, as 
chaplain of the Connecticut troops, and died while on duty at that place, 
in May, 1746. His wife was a sister of President Edwards of the New 
Jersey College. 

* Her grave-stone has the following inscription : 

Hie jac : reliq : 

Lucretia uxor 

E. Backus Armig : 

quie ob. Jan. 30. 

An. Christ. 1787 

•■ ..aetat. 25. 



Quas latet Veritas sub umbra, 
Nocte prreterita tenebrarum patebit. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 161 

2. Rev. Simon Backus, son of tlie above, was pastor in Granby, Mass., 
and died in 1828, aged 87. 

8. Rev. Charles Backus, D. D., of Somers, born in that part of Nor- 
wich which is now Franklin, Nov. 9, 1749, died in 1803. He had a hijrh 
reputation as an acute and able theologian, and prepai'ed between forty 
and fifty young men for the sacred office. Dr. Dwight said of him, " I 
have not known a wiser man." 

4. Rev. Isaac Backus, A, M>, of Middleborough, Mass., was born at 
Nwwich, within the limits of the old town plot, Jan. 9, 1724, and died 
Nov. 20, 1806. He was first a Separatist, and afterwards embracing 
Baptist principles, becamo eminent in that denomination as a preacher, 
and the author of several historical works relating to the diffusion of the 
Baptist faith in New England. 

5. Rev. Azel Backus, D. D,, born in Franklin, Oct. 13, 1765, was a 
n-ephew of Rev. Charles Backus of Somers. His father died v/hen he 
was a youth, and left him a farm, which, he said, "I wisely exchanged for 
an education in College." He settled at Bethlem, Conn., as the successor 
of Dr. Bellamy, but in 1812 was chosen the first President of Hamilton 
College. The most noted of his writings is an Election Sermon preached 
at Plartford in 1798, on the character of Absalom, — a political discourse 
<^ strong partizan tendency^ 



YII. Baldwin.* 

John Baldwin is a name often repeated among the early emigrants to 
the New World. Two or three John Baldwins settled in Massachusetts. 
John, the son of Sylvester, was at New Haven before 1640, and is sup- 
posed to have removed to Stonington.f A person of the same name, 
with several otlier Baldwins, is found among the planters at Milford in 
1'639, from Avhence he removed with his son John to Newark in 1667. 

John Baldwin of Norwich stands apart from all these, no connection 
between him and any otiior Baldwin family having been hitherto ascer- 
tained. A family tradition has been current that he came to this country 
in his youth with a relative, but liad no brothers. His first appearance on 
record is at Guilford, where he married, April 2.'), 1653, Hannah Burchet, 
[probably Birchard.] The children recorded at Guilford are : 
John, born Dec. 5, 1654. 
Hannah, born Oct. 6, 1656. 
Sarah, born Nov. 25, 1658. 



* The name, Baldwin, is said to be a contraction of Bold-winner. 
t John Bahl'.vin, first of New London and afterward of Stonington, mari^ied widow 
Rebecca Chesebrough, July 24, 1672. He died in 1683. 
11 



162 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

The registry is not continued in Norwich, but we know that he had a 
second son, Thomas, who was born in 1661 or 62. 

Of the decease of the proprietor thei-e is no account. His oldest son,. 
John, removed to Lebanon. He was one of the grantees of that planta- 
tion in 1695, one of the selectmen of the newlj organized township in 
1699, and at the time of bis decease in January^ 1705, was a deacon of 
the church, 

"Thomas Baldwin, Husbandman," the second son of John the proprie- 
tor, married Sai'ah, daughter of John Calkins. He died Sept, 16, 1741, 
in the 80th year of his age. His farm was three miles distaet from the 
town-plot, and now fornas a part of the large domain of Asa Fitch, Esq., 
of Fitchville, Bozi'ah. Though he himself made a cross for his signature^ 
in the course of three or four generations we find among his descendants^ 
divines, lawyers, physicians, scholars^ and statesnoen. He had four daugh- 
ters, who passed in due time into other families, — Baldwin of Lebanon,- 
Birchard, Backus, and Post ; and four sons, viz., John, who- married Lucy 
Metcalf of Lebanon, and his family removing to the Cohos country, as- 
sisted in peopling the New Hampshire grants ; Thomas, Ebenezer, and 
Jabez. 

The second Thomas, so^n of Thomas and Sai'ab, baptized by Rev. Mr.. 
"Woodward, July 22, 1701, married Ann Bingham, 1730, They had eight 
children. Their oldest son, the third Thom-as Baldwin, born in 1734^ 
studied medicine, and after a short term of practice, entered the army as 
surgeon, and served in that capacity on the frontier, in the wars against 
the French. He died in the prince of life, and probably while in the 
service, before he had attained his SOth year. 

He had married at a very early age, and left a widow, and an only son^ 
wlio continued the paternal name, and gave to it a distinguished reputa- 
tion. This fourth Thomas Baldwin, in regular succession, was born in 
the Bozi-ah district of Norwich, Dec. 23, 1753, and considered in the light 
of a self-taught man, deriving but little aid from schools or books, and 
gathering mental treasures slowly, in the intervals of a laborious farming^ 
life, was one of the most noted characters that the Nine-miles-square haa 
pi'oduced. 

His mother married a second husband of the name of Eames, and when 
he was about sisteen years of age tbe family removed to Canaan, N. H.,. 
where they breasted the hardships of a frontier life. In that mountainous^ 
lialf-opened, sparsely-inhabited district, tbe ministerial labors of Thomas 
Baldwin commenced. He married, in September, 1775, Ruth Hunting- 
ton of Norwich, (one of the Ruth Munthigtons, it might be said, for that 
has been a name often duplicated in Norwich,) and spent several years,, 
farming and studying, traveling and preaching, — a pains-taking, hard- 
working, unpaid evangelisfc of the Baptist denomination. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 163 

From these useful but obscure scenes, he was suddenly transferred, in 
the year 1790, to the pastorate of a large, intelligent and wealthy society 
in Boston. Yet he rose naturally to the requisite standard, and filled this 
new sphere as successfully as the former. The native vigor of his intel- 
lect was equal to all demands made upon it. He became known as an 
author, editor, and theologian, and exerted a powerful influence in favor 
of the denomination to which he belonged, concentrating its energies and 
greatly enlarging the sphei'e of Its operations. 

He died suddenly, at "Waterville, Maine, while on a visit to that place,- 
Aug. 29, 1824, aged 71. 

Capt. Ebenezer Baldwin, the third son of Thomas and Sarah, was born 
May 7, 1710, and married Bethiah Barker, the nuptial contract being 
made sure " per Jacob Elliot." The epitaph upon his tomb-stone con- 
*denses the history of his life. 

In Memory 

of 

Capt. Ebenezer Baldwin, 

who departed tins life May 2d 

1792, aged 80 yeai-s, 

A reputable citizen, 

A kind husband, a tender parent, 

An amiable cheerful neighbour, 

And a good man. 

Supported by Christian fortitude 

He bore with singular Philosophy 

the peculiar calamities of his life 

during nine years of blindness and infirmity 

and the extreme pains of 

his last lingering sickness 

in the sure hope of a long wished for 

Eternity of happiness. 

Ebenezer, the oldest son of Ebenezer and Bethiah Baldwin, born July 
3, 1745, was a graduate and tutor of Yale College ; ordained pastor at 
Danbury in 1770, entered the army as chaplain in 1776, and died in 
October, 1777, aged 31. 

PIou. Simeon Baldwin, so long known as Judge Baldwin of New Haven, 
one of the sterling men of Connecticut, was also a son of Capt. Ebenezer 
and his wife Bethiah. He was born at Norwich, Dec. 14, 1761, gradu- 
ated at Yale College in 1781, was member of Congress from Connecticut 
from 1803 to 1805, Associate Judge of the Superior Court and Supreme 
Court of Errors, and Mayor of the city of New Haven, where he died. 
May 20, 1851, in his 90th year. 

His son, the Hon. Roger S. Baldwin, held the offices of Governor of 
Connecticut, and U. S. Senator, serving his native state in her highest 



164 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

executive and confederated capacity. He' died at New Haven, Feb. 19, 
1863. 

Jabez Baldwin, the fourth son of the first Thomas, died in his 25th 
year, without issue. 



VIII. Bingham. 

The house-lot of Thomas Bingham bears the date of April, 1G60, though 
at that time he could not have been over eighteen years of age. He mar- 
ried, Dec. 12, 16G6, Mary Kudd, who is supposed to have been the daugh- 
ter of Lieut. Jonathan Rudd of Saybrook. Her image rises before us 
enveloped in a haze of romance, on account of her probable connection 
with the story of Bride Brook. 

The dainty little river or rivulet that bears this name, is in East Lyme, 
and received its designation from a marriage ceremony that was performed 
on its bank in the latter part of the year 1G46, or the early part of 1647. 
The couple linked together were Jonathan Rudd and some unknown fair 
one to whom with little hazard of mistake we may give the gentle name 
of Mary. New London and Saybrook were then adjoining towns, though 
Lyme, East Lyme and Waterford have since seated themselves between. 
The scene of this solemn betrotlial was a solitary spot, far from any human 
habitation, unless it might have been of savage wigwams ; the ground was 
covered with snow, and the solemnities must have been performed in the 
open air. 

Witnesses were not wanting on this interesting occasion. The air, we 
may believe, was full, — and a goodly number belonging to the earth, stood 
around, wrapped in their furry robes. John Winthrop, Esq., afterward 
Governor of the Colony, was the acting magistrate; a friendly cavalcade 
accompanied him from New London, which, with the bridal party from 
Saybrook, and a few wild faces peering curiously from the woods, made a 
company sufficient to relieve the wilderness of its silence and solitude. 

Tins enlivening piece of romance, which comes like the breath from a 
bank of violets across the sterile ridges of our early history, originated 
from what the historian may consider a fortunate concurrence of untoward 
events. No person duly qualified to perform the nuptial service was to be 
found in Saybrook, and the route to Hartford was too much obstructed 
with snow to admit of travel in that direction. Application was made to 
Mr. Winthrop at Pequot Harbor to come to Saybrook and ratify the con- 
tract ; but he had been commissioned by Massachusetts, and his settlement 
being under the jurisdiction of that colony, he could not exercise the func- 
tions of a magistrate within the limits of Connecticut. To obviate the 
difficulty, he proposed to meet the parties upon the border of the two gov- 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 165 

ernraents, and there, under the open expanse of heaven, to rivet the 
golden chain. This arrangement not only gave novelty and brilliance to 
the ceremony, but made it an incident of historical importance, subse- 
quently cited and accepted as reliable testimony in a case relating to the 
original bounds of the two plantations.* 

The name of the bride of Bride Brook has not been recovered. Mary 
Rudd, who became the wife of the young Norwich proprietor, Thomas 
Bingham, is supposed to have been a daughter of the couple who were 
there united, and probably their first-born child.f Her age at the time of 
her death carries her birth back to 1648. 

Thomas and Mary Bingham had eleven children, four of them daugh- 
ters, viz., Mary, Ann, Abigail, and Deborah, who became in due time the 
household partners of John Backus, Hezekiah Mason, Daniel Huntington, 
and Stephen Tracy. The parents, with the greater part of their family, 
removed to Windham, where Thomas Bingham can be traced for more 
than thirty years, as sergeant, selectman, and deacon of the church. He 
is on the first list of approved inhabitants in 1693, and appears to have 
sustained through life a position of influence and respectability. Both in 
a civil and religious capacity, he takes rank among the fathers of that 
town. J 

He died Jan. 16, 1729-30, aged 88. 

Mrs. Mary Bingham died Aug. 4, 1726, aged 78. 

Thomas Bingham, .Jr., boi-n Dec. 11, 1669, was the only one of the 
sons that settled permanently in Norwich, and succeeded to the privileges 
of his father as a proprietor of the town. He married Hannah, daughter 
of William Backus, and died April 1, 1710, leaving eight children under 
the age of 1<S. 

Caleb Bingham, a bookseller of Boston, well known to the New Eng- 
land schools of the last generation as the publisher of the Columbian 
Orator and American Preceptor, was a descendant of Thomas ]5ingham 
of Norwich. He was a native of Salisbury, Conn. 



IX. BiRCHARD. 

Thomas Burchard, aged forty, embarked for New England in a vessel 
called the True Love, Sept. 20, 1635, with his wife, Mary, and six child- 

* Wintlirop's deposition in March, 1672, respecting the bounds between New London 
and Lyme. Conn. Col. Ree., 2, 558. 

t In a deed recorded at Saybrook, Nathaniel Rudd calls Lieut. Jonathan Riuld his. 
father, and in a similar instrument upon record at Norwich, Tliomas Binnliam speaks 
of Nathaniel Rudd as his brother, from which it is inferred that Mary (Rudd) Bingham, 
was the daughter of Jonathan Rudd. 

} ^Y. A. Weaver's Notes on Windham. 



166 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

ren, one of them a ^on, named John, aged seven, and the others daugh- 
ters. Thomas Bircher, made free at Boston, May 17, 1G37, and Thomas 
Birchwood, or Birchard, of" Hartford in 1G39, were probably the same 
person. He is subsequently found at Saybrook, and was deputy from 
that township to the General Court in 1650 and 51. After this there 
seems to be no trace of him at Saybrook, except in a land sale made in 
1656 by Thomas Birchard, "of Martin's Vineyard," to William Pratt, 
wherein he quits claim for himself and in behalf of his son, John 
Birchard.f 

There can be little hesitation in assuming that John, son of the above 
Thomas, (aged seven in 1635,) was the John Birchard that became a pro- 
prietor of Norwich. He appears to have been a man of considerable 
note in the company, particularly as a scribe, serving for several years as 
Town Clerk and Recorder. 

John Birchard was one of the ten inhabitants of Norwich accepted as 
freemen at Hartford in October, 1663, Clerk of the County Court in 1673, 
a Commissioner or Justice of the Peace in 1676, and Deputy to the Gen- 
eral Court in October, 1691. 

(Autograph in 1680.) 




The marriage of John Birchard and Christian Andrews, July 22, 1 653, 
and the births of fourteen children, ranging from 1654 to November, 
1680, are recorded at Norwich. The first five of the children and one of 
later birth died in infancy. Ihe mother seems to have been called away 
while her family was still young, and Mr. Birchard married for a second 
wife, Jane, relict of Samuel Hyde and daughter of Thomas Lee. 

In the settlement of Lebanon, Mr. Birchard took a prominent interest. 
He was one of the four original proprietors of the five miles tract pur- 
chased of Owaneco in 1692. He assisted in laying out the lands, removed 
thither with his family, probably about 1 698, and there died, Nov. 17, 
1702, — just two days before the decease of Mr. Fitch, His relict, Mrs. 
Jane Birchard, died at Lebanon, Jan. 21, 1722-3. 

Mr. Birchard had six sons that lived to maturity. Samuel, the oldest> 
went to Windham. John, Joseph and Daniel are found among the early 
inhabitants of Lebanon, though it is not certain that they all remained there. 

* Mass. Hist. Coll., 3 : 8, 272. 

t A Thomas Birchard died at Dorchester, near Boston, Oct. 3, 1657. Savage's Gen. 
Diet., 1, 181. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 167 

James Birehard, born JuJy K'u 1G.0."J, scltled at Norwich West Farms, 
now Franklin. He married Elizabeth Beckwith, had a family of ten 
•children, and lived to be more than eighty years of age. 

Thomas Birchard also settled in Norwich, and left descendants. The 
2iame has never disappeared from the roll of inhabitants. 

The two daughters of the jii-oprietor, John Birehax'd, married John 
Calkins and Jonathan IIai-tshorn« 



X. Bliss. 

Thomas Bliss, Senior and Junior, had house-lots and divisions of land 
in Hartford, as early as 1G40. The senior died in Hartford, leaving nine 
-children, and his -widow, Margaret, apparently a woman of resolute, inde- 
pendent character, removed with the younger part of the family to Spring- 
field. Thomas Bliss, Junior, is afterwards found at Saybrook, where his 
marriage and the births of six -children are recorded. The list is repeated 
with some variation of date and the addition of two more children, at Nor- 
wich. The wife's family name is not given in either place. "Thomas 
and Elizabeth BUss v/ere married the latter end of October, 1<)44." 

The allotments of Thomas Bliss in Saybroek were eastward of the river 
in what is now Lyme. His house-lot of thirty acres lay between John 
Ompsted (Olmstead) on the north, and John Lay south. He sold it, July 
23, 1662, to John Comsteck. His home-lot in Norwdch was also near to 
ihat of John Olmstead, extending originally, at the north-west, to the pent 
highway. That part where the house stands, has never been alienated. 
Seven generations have dwelt on the same spot, and the house is supposed 
not to have been entireiy rebuilt since it was erected by the first pro- 
prietor-* 

Thomas Bliss died April 15, 1688. His will, executed two days before 
his death, -was proved at New London, before Edward Palmes, June 13, 
and allowed by Sir Edmund Andr<jss at Boston ; this being the period 
when that delegated despot arrogated to himself supreme authority over 
the courts of New England. The will recognizes wife Elizabeth, son 
4Samuel, and six daughters. His oldest son, Thomas, had died without 
assue, Jan. 29, 1681. Ehzabeth, the relict, died Feb. 28, 1C99-170O. 

Samuel Bliss married, Dec. 8, H-81, Anna, daughter of John Elderkin. 

Fiveef the daughters married as follows: 

* "Bliss in 1659 ; Bliss in 1859 : no bad motto for a Norwich home." Gilman's 
Hist. Discourse, Sept. 7, 1859. The portrait of Dr. Benjamin Lord, one of the ven- 
erable ministers of the parish, and the maternal ancestor of the present occupants, 
hanging upon its wallSj seems tc accord with the ancient date and quiet comfort of the 
ciwcUing^ 



168 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Elizabeth married Edward Smith of New London, June 7, 1 6QS. 

Sarah m. 1st, Thomas Shiman, Dec, 1C&8; 2d, Solomon Tracy. 

Mary m. David Calkins of New London. 

Deliverance (recorded also Delwer and DoUnda) m. Daniel Perkins of 
Norwich. 

Aivne, one of the first-lborn daughters of Norwich, m. Josiah B-ock". 
well, 1688. 

Rebecca, the youngest daughter, born in 1663, has not been traced. 

In the inventory of Thomas Bliss, his estate is estimated at £182.17.7,. 
He had land, besides his home-lot, over the river, — on the Little Plain, — - 
at the Great Plain, — at the Falls, — in Yantic meadow, — in meadow at 
Beaver Brook,; — 'in pasture east of the town,— and on Westward hill. 

This illustrates the prudential course of the early rulers of the planta- 
tion in regard to the common lands. They were divided in small quan- 
tities at short intervals, corresponding to the growth and necessities of the 
town and the ability of the owners to clear them u.p and pUice them undes^ 
cultivation., 



XL Bowers, 

Morgan Bower-s eame ft'om that part of Saybrook which fey east of the- 
river, and is now Lyme. His hon^e-lot in those Lyme graivts was on, or 
near Black Point, and had been in his possession about five years. Little 
is knowH concerning him, either before or after he removed to Norwich.. 
He was on the jury of the county court in 1 GG7, and again in 1 680. No. 
trace is found of wife oi* children, but probably he had both. It was dis- 
reputable at that period for a man v/ithout a family to live as a house- 
holder by himself. In his old ag«, however, he seems to have been botli 
lonely and infirm. 

The folio-wing notice is recorded in 1701 : 

" Morgan Bowers being unable to take care of and relieve himself, desireth, the towa 
would please to take care of him^ and what estate he hath, that it should be disposed of 
at the dib-cretJon of sonie persons appointed by the town, for hts maintenance.'"' 

The town accordingly appointed Liciit. Wm. Backus, Ensign Thoma& 
"VYaterman, and Sergeant Caleb Abel, "to take care of the said Morgan 
Bowers, and provide for him as his need i-equireth, by improving his own 
estate for that end as far as it will go,, and for want of estate of his qw^ 
to provide for him on the town account." 

Nx)thing later has been found i;espectiiig hive 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 169 



XII. Bradford. 



John Bradfoixl was the son of William Bradford, the Pilgrim Governor 
of Plymouth Colony. His mother was Dorothy May, the earliest of our 
May-flowers, the herald of those that give fragrance to the airs of spring, 
and the graceful prototype of the white-winged bark that bore her and 
the pioneers of freedom over the ocean.* 

Dorothy May was the first wife of Governor Bradford. She embarked 
with her husband for the Promised Land, — but, like Moses, only saw it at 
a distance. After the vessel had anchored in Cape Cod Harbor, she fell 
overboard and was drowned, Dec. 7, 1620, her husband being absent at 
the time in a boat or shallop exploring the coast and selecting a place for 
a settlement. 

John Bradford was not the companion of his parents in this voyage^ 
and it is not ascertained when he came to this country. Very little is 
known of his early history, for neither Morton nor Prince, the earliest 
authorities respecting Plymouth Colony, give any hint of the existence of 
this son of Gov. Bradford. 

He was of Duxbury in 1645 ; afterwards of Marshfleld, and deputy to 
the General Court from both places. He married Martha, daughter of 
Thomas Bourne of Mai^shfield, but had no children. Of the circumstan- 
ces which led him to leave the old colony and unite with the people of 
Saybrook in founding a new plantation in the Mohegan wildei-ness, we 
are ignorant. But it may be supposed that the project originated through 
acquaintanceship and frequent intercourse with My. Jonathan Brewster;, 
who had so greatly benefited his outward condition by a similar change 
ten years before. The two friends, however, if such they were, never 
enjoyed the pleasures of friendly neighborhood, as Mr. Brewster was laid 
in his grave before Mr. Bradford left the old colony. 

The home-lot of the latter in Norwich bears the date of the oldest pro- 
prietors, 1659, and it is probable that he soon remo^•ed to the spot. His 
farm in Duxbury was sold by "■John Bradford, gentleman," to Christopher 
Wadsworth, in 16C4. 

Mr. Bradford was one of the townsmen of Norwich in 1671, but his 
name seldom occurs on the records. His will was exhibited at the County 
Court in September, 1676. His widow married, after a short interval, 
her opposite neighbor, Lieut. Thomas Tracy. The period of her death 
is not ascertained, but the Lieutenant was living with a third wife in 
1683. 

After Mr. Bradford's death, his homestead reverted to his nephew^ 
Thomas Bradford, who sold it, April 2, 1691, to Sunon Huntington, Jr.> 



* Was aot the vessel her namesake I 



170 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

describing it as " my home lot in Norwich with my new dwelling house 
and pasture adjoining, 8^ acres, more or less, abutting on the town street, 
19^ rods." The price was £50 in country pay, or £25 in money.* 

About this time Thomas Bradford engaged, in connection w^ith his 
brother-in-law, Nehemiah Smith of New London, (son of N. S., senior, 
of Norwich,) in a large land purchase, made of Joseph and Jonathan 
Bull of Hartford. This land lay on the west side of Nahantic Bay, and 
was called the Soldier Farm, having been originally granted by the Leg- 
islature to five of Capt, Mason's soldiers for services in the Pequot war. 
On the northern portion of this tract, was a farm of about two hundred 
acres, where Thomas Bradford settled. His house was not far from the 
north-western corner of New London, as the bounds were then understood. 
It would now fall Avithin the town of Salem, 

Thomas Bradford was a son of Major William Bradford of Plymouth. 
He died in 1708. 

Two of Major Bradford's daughters, own sisters of Thomas, found 
partners among the inhabitants of Norwich. Alice, relict of Rev. Wm. 
Adams of Dedham, who became the second wife of Major James Fitch ; 
and Melatiah, who married John Steele, then a resident of the town^ / 

Joseph Bradford, another of the fifteen children of Major William of 
Plymouth, also came to Connecticut. He married Anna, the youngest 
daughter of the Eev. James Fitch, and settled first in Lebanon. After 
the death of his wife, he made important purchases in the Mohegan terri- 
tory, between Norwich and New London, and removed to this new field 
in 1716. The district in which he settled was then the North Parish of 
New London, but is now the town of Montville. 

The births of ten children of Joseph and Anna Bradford are recorded 
at Lebanon, — one son, Joseph, and nine daughters. Among them are 
three couplets, or pairs of twins. He had also, by a second wife, a son 
John, born May 20, 1717, at Mohegan. 

Mr. Bradford was the only son of Major William Bradford by his 
second wife, who was the widow Wiswall. From his gravestone in the 
Montville Cemetery, we learn that he was born in 1675. 

"In memory of Lieutenant Joseph Bradford, who died Janj. 16, 1647, in the TSd. 
year of his age." 



* Three Hantington houses were afterwards built on this lot, and still retain their 
places. They were occupied for many years by the brothers, Andrew, Joshua, and 
Ebenezer, sons of General Jabez Huntington. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 171 

XIII. Hugh Calkins. 

Hugh Calkins (or Caulkin.s*) was one of a body of emigrants, called 
the Welsh Company, that came to New England in 1G40, from Chepstow 
in Monmouthshire, on the border of AVales, with their minister, the Rev. 
Mr. Blinman. The larger portion of this company settled first at Marsh- 
field, but soon transferred their residence to Gloucester, upon the rough 
l^romontory of Cape Ann. From thence, after eight years of experiment, 
most of them removed to New London, hoping probably to find lands 
more aral)le and productive, and allured also by affectionate attachment 
to Mr. Blinman, wliom Mr. Winthrop had invited to his plantation. 

Hugh Calkins was, in 1 650, deputy from Gloucester to the General 
Court of Massachusetts, and chosen again in 1G51, but removing early in 
that year to New London, the vacancy Avas filled by another election. 

While living at New London, he was chosen twelve times deputy to 
the Connecticut Assembly, (the elections being semi-annual,) and was one 
of the townsmen, or select-men, invariably, fron> 1G52 till he removed to 
Norwich. 

From Norwich he was deputy at ten sessions of the Legislature, be- 
tween ]March, 1663, and October, 1671, and was one of the first deacons 
of the Norwich church. At each of the three towns in which he was aa 
early settler and proprietor, he was largely employed in public business, 
being usually appointed one of committees for consultation, for fortifying, 
drafting soldiers, settling difficulties, and particularly for surveying lands 
and determining boundaries. These ofiices imply a considerable range of 
information, as well as activity and executive talent, yet he seems to 
have had no early education, uniformly making only a bold H for his 
signature. 

In a deposition made in 1672, he staled that he was then 72 years of 
age. The year 1600 may therefore be taken as the date of his birth. 
Of his wife, we only know that her name was Ann. Six children have 
been traced, four of whom were probably born before the emigration to 
this country. 

Sarah, supposed to be the oldest child, was married at Gloucester, Oct. 
28, 1645, to AVilliam Hough. This couple removed in 1651 to New Lon- 
don, and several of their descendants afterwards settled in Norwich and 
its vicinity. 

Mary was married at Gloucester, Nov. 8, 1 649, to Hugh Roberts ; and 
these also followed the fortunes of the family to New London. 

Rebecca died at Gloucester, March 14, 1651. 

Deborah was born at Gloucester, March 18, 1643-4, and is the only 

* Tlie name appears on the early records, written indifferently, with or without tho 
u, and with or without the final a. 



172 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

one of the children the date of whose birth has been ascertainedi. She 
married Jonathan Royce, one of the first band of Norwich proprietors. 

The two sons of Hugh Calkins were John and David. The former 
removed with his father to Norwich. David remained in New London. 

Deacon Hugh Calkins died in 1690, aged about 90 years. 



XIV. John Calkins. 

John Calkins, the oldest son of Hugh, was probably born about 1634. 
He was old enough to be summoned to work, with other settlers, on the 
mill-dam at New London in 1652. He married, at New London, Sarah, 
daughter of Robert Royce, and his oldest child, Hugh, was born at that 
place before the removal to Norwich. 

John Calkins was one of the selectmen of Norwich in 1671, and on the 
jury of the county court so late as 1691. He died Jan. 8, 1702-3. 
Sarah, his relict, died May 1, 1711, aged 77 years. They had three 
daughters that lived to niaturity, Sai'ah, Mary, and Elizabeth, who mar- 
ried in the same order, Thomas Baldwin, Samuel GifFord, and Samuel 
Hyde. 

They had also three sons, older than the daughters : 

1. Hugh, born in June, 1659, married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Slu- 
man and step-daughter of Solomon Tracy. She died in 1703, and he 
married, second, Lois Standish, probably daughter of Capt. Josiah Stand- 
ish of Preston. 

He had five children, and left them at his death what was then consid- 
ered a large estate. After providing for the widow, the oldest son had a 
double portion, and the others inherited equal shares of £203 10s.* 

INSCRIPTION UPON HIS GRAVE-STONE. 

SERt H V GH 

CALKINGS DYED 

S E P T R 15. 1722 

IN YE 63D Year 

OF HIS AGE. 

2. John, the second son of the proprietor John, born in July, 1661, — 
probably the third male child born in Norwich, — married Abigail Birch- 
ard, Oct. 23, 1690, and subsequently removed to Lebanon. He was the 
first constable of that town, chosen at its organization, May 31, 1698, and 
corporal of the first militia company, 1700. 

* The inventory of his effects, taken a few days after his death, mentions the articles 
of honey, beeswax, butter, cider, and metheglin, which shows the variety of domestic 
produce of that day. Metheghn was a favorite beverage of the old inhabitants. 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 173 

His youngest son, James, born Aj.ril 29, 1702, is on the list of Yale 
College graduates as 31r. Jacohus Galhing, 1725. He was an ordained 
minister, and officiated as such for several years, but afterwards settled as 
a farmer in the western district of Norwich, where he died in 1750. 

3. Samuel, the third son of John, settled in Lebanon. Stephen, the 
son of Samuel, born in 170G, was an actii'e, stalwart, enterprising farmer, 
famous in his time as a cattle-drover or horse-courser. He may be traced 
by deeds, and town and court records, as a resident at Norwich, New 
London, Lyme, Lebanon, and finally at Sharon, Ct., where several of his 
sons settled, and from whence, after the Revolutionary war, his descend- 
ants spread into western New York. 



XV. Edgerton. 

No earlier notice is obtained of Richard Edgerton, than the date of his 
marriage, which is recorded at Saybrook, but without naming the wife. 
The omission is supplied by the ampler details at Norwich. Richard 
Edgerton and Mary Sylvester were married April 7, 1653. The birth of 
three daughters is registered at Saybrook, reaching to September, 1659, 
and in November of that year we have the date of his house-lot at Nor- 
wich. 

In this new home, six other children are added to the list, four of them 
sons, John, Richard, Samuel, and Joseph, each of whom Ij^came the head 
of a family. 

Richard, the proprietor, served at diiferent periods as townsman and 
constable. He died in March, 1692. 

John Edgerton, one of the earliest-born sons of Norwich, (b. June 12, 
1662,) married Mary Reynolds, and died soon afterward, leaving an infant 
son John, afterward known as Lieut. John Edgerton, the father of Capt. 
Elisha Edgerton of the Revolutionary period. 

Richard Edgerton, 2d, married Elizabeth Scudder, Jan. 4, 1692. He 
died in 1729, and his aged relict in 1762. 

Samuel Edgerton married Alice Ripley, and died in 1748. Captain 
James Edgei-ton, a noted ship-master of New London, who died in 1842, 
was a descendant of this couple. 

Joseph, the youngest son of the proprietor, was one of the original 
planters of Leljanon. 



174 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

XVI. Gager. 

William Gager came to America in 1630, with Gov. Winthroii, but 
died the same year from a disease contracted by ill diet at sea, which 
swept off many of the emigrants. He is characterized by cotemporary 
journalists as " a skilful surgeon, a right godly man, and one of the dea- 
cons of our congregation."* His son John, the only child that has been 
traced,t was one of the company that settled at New London with John 
Winthrop the younger.J His name is there found on the earliest extant 
list of inhabitants. 

He had a grant from the town of New London, of a farm of two hund- 
red acres,§ east of the river, near the straits, (now in Ledyard,) to which 
he removed soon after 1 650, and there dwelt until he joined in the settle- 
ment of Norwich and removed thither. His house-lot in the new town 
bears the date of the oldest surveys, viz., November, 1659. He was con- 
stable of Norwich in 1674 and 1688. 

His oldest son, born in September, 1647, who in 1688 is styled "John 
Gager of New London, son to John, Sen. of Norwich," died in 1691, 
without issue. 

The will of John Gager, the proprietor, dated Dec. 21, 1695, has the 
descriptive passage, "being now aged and full of days;" but he lived eight 
years longer, dying Dec. 10, 1703. His will provides for wife Elizabeth, 
bequeathes all real estate to "only son Samuel," and adds "to my six sons 
that married my daughters, viz. John AUyn, Daniel Brewster, Jeremiah 
Ripley, Simon Huntington, Joshua Abel and Caleb Forbes,|| twenty shil- 
lings each, having already given their wives considerable portions in move- 
ables and lands." 

It was much the custom in those days for men who had children arrived 
at maturity, to become in great part their own executors, distributing their 
estates by deed and assignment before death, reserving only a needful 
portion for themselves, to be disposed of afterwards. This accounts for 



* Sec Prince's Chronology, 1630; also, Life and Letters of John Winthrop. 
t Gov. Winthrop, in a letter of Nov. 29, 1630, says : " I have lost twelve of my 
family," — and among them enumerates Mr. Gager and his wife and two children. 
Savage's Winthrop, App. Vol. I. 

X The elder Gov. Winthrop remembered him in the following item of his last will 
and testament : 

" I will that John Gager shall have a cow, one of the best I shall have, in recom- 
pense of a heifer his father bought of me, and two ewe goats, and ten bushels of Indian 
corn." Sav. Winth., App. Vol. 11. 

§ Sold in 1696 to Kalph Stoddard. 

II Had he mentioned the names of the wives in the order of their age, they would 
have been, Elizabeth Allyn, Sarah Forbes, Bethiah Abel, Lydia Huntington, Hannah 
Brewster, and Mary Ripley. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 175 

the slendemess of many ancient inventories. That of John Gager in 
1703 amounted to £49 16s. 

Among the items enumerated are, — 

One great BibelL 
One white-faced stag. 

This last we may imagine to have been a domestic pet of the old peo- 
ple. Several articles are mentioned belonging to the old-fashioned fire- 
place, which the modem use of stove, furnace and range has rendered 
almost obsolete ; such as, — 

Two tramiUs, a peal and tongs. 

A suit, warming-pan and andirons. 

A peal (or peel) was a large flat shovel used to draw bread from the 
oven. A common shovel was often termed a slice, and sjiit was probably 
used for snuffers.* 

Other articles that seem antique and homely to the present generation, 
were porringers, wooden trenchers, and syllabub pots. 

Many curious things are found in these old inventories, — very common 
articles are canns, of pewter or silver, piggins, keelers, pewter basins, and 
a cow-bell. 

Samuel Gager, only surviving son of John, born Feb., 1654, married Re- 
becca (Lay), relict of Daniel Raymond of New London, in 1695. He 
was a man of good repute and considerable estate, a resident in the parish 
of New Concord, but interred at his own request, as heretofore stated, in 
the old neglected grave-yard of the first-comers, in the town-plot, where 
some fragments of the stone may yet remain. 

William Gagei', one of the sons of Samuel, born in 1704, graduated at 
Yale College in 1721, and in 1725 was settled in the pastoral office at 
Lebanon. He died in 1759. 

Othniel Gager, who has held the office of Town Clerk in Norwich for 
the last quarter of a century, is of the sixth generation in descent from 
the first proprietor, in the line of John, oldest son of Samuel. 



XVIL GiFFOKD. 

Stephen GifFord's first marriage was with Hannah Gove, in JMay, 1667. 
She died Jan. 24, 1670-1, leaving two children, Samuel and Hannah. 
He married, second, Hannah, daughter of John Gallop of Stonington, 
May 12, 1672. Four children are subsequently recorded to him, — John, 
Ruth, Stephen, and Aquilla. 

* See Bntte ia Webster. 



176 HISTOEY OP NORWICH. 

The proprietor and his second wife lived together more than half a 
century, and died the same year. Twin head-stones of rough granite 
record their decease. 

MR MRS 

STEPHEN GIFF HANNAH GIF 

ORD DYEDNOVr ford DYEDJANy 

27. 1724. AGED 20. 1724. AGED 

83YERS. 79YERS. 

Samuel Gifford removed to Lebanon in 1692, and there died, Aug. 26, 
1714. The two daughters of Stephen, the proprietor, also settled in Leb- 
anon, as the wives of Samuel Calkins and Jeremiah Fitch. John, Stc» 
phea and Aquilla GifFord, sons of the first proprietor, were inhabitants of 
Norwich in 1736. They left descendants, and the name has continued 
on the rolls of freemen and among the substantial farmers of the neigh- 
borhood to the present day. 



XVin. Griswold. 

The brothers Matthew and Edward Griswold were natives of Kenil- 
worth, in Warwickshire, England.* The latter, according to a deposition 
in the State Records at Hartford, was born in 1607. The date of their 
emigration to this country has not been ascertained. Edward is found at 
Windsor not long after 1640, and is supposed to have brought with him 
from England a wife, Margaret, and several children, others being added 
to the group in this country. Li 1664 he removed to Ivillingworth, as 
one of the leaders in the settlement of that place, and was its first magis- 
trate. It may be inferred also that he stood sponsor when the name was 
given, Killingworth, or Killinsworth, answering to the popular pronuncia- 
tion of his native place in England. 

Lieut. Francis Griswold, the Norwich proprietor, was a son of Edward 

* Copy of a depositioa made by George Griswold of Killingworth : 

"George Griswold, about 61, testifieth— 

" That in his youtiiful years he lived with his fother in England, in a town called 
Killinsworth in Warwickshire-^-he did several times since heare his fatiier Edwai-d 
Griswould say that the house he then lived in and lands belonging thereto was his 
brother Matthew Griswoulds and have lately seen and read a letter under the hand of 
Thomas Griswould of Killinsworth abovesd, directed to his brother Matthew Griswould 
afores'd, wherein the said Thomas Griswould intimated that he did then live in the 
abovesd house, belonging to his said brother Matthew aforesd. 
Sworn before Joseph Curtiss, Assistant. 
May 9, 1700." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 177 

and Margaret, born about 1632. He appears to have been a man of 
capacity and enterprise, and took an active part in the affairs of the plant- 
ation, serving as representative to the General Court for eleven sessions, 
beginning October, 1664, and ending May, 1671. 

It is not known when he was married, or to whom. Not even the 
household name of his wife is found in the records at Saybrook or Nor- 
wich. At the former place is the following registry : 

" Children of Francis Grisell. Saraw b. 28 March, 1653. Joseph, b. 4 June 1655, 
d. tlie hitter end of July, the same year. Mary, b. 26 August 1G56 : Hanna, b. 11 
December, 1658." 

From Norwich records: 

" Some of the children of Lieut. Griswold dec'd. Deborah born in May 1661. Lydia 
in June 1663 and died in 1664. Samuel in Sept. 1665, Margaret in October 1668. 
Lydia in October 1671." 

Lieut. Griswold died the same month, October, 1671, — cut down appa- 
rently by some sudden attack of disease, leaving seven of the above-named 
children, varying in age from an infant of days to eighteen years. 

Thomas Adgate and John Post, Sen., acted as guardians to the younger 
children. The daughters were very early provided with eligible part- 
ners. 

Sarah was married to Robert Chapman of Saybrook, June 27, 1671. 

Mary to Jonathan Tracy, July 11, 1672; second marriage to Eleazer 
Jewett, Sept. 3, 1717. 

Hannah to William Clark of Saybrook, March 7, 1678. 

Deborah to Jonathan Crane, Dec. 19, 1678. 

Margaret to Thomas Buckingham, oldcjst son of the Rev. Thomas 
Buckingham of Saybrook, Dec. 16, 1691. 

Samuel Griswold became a married man at the age of twenty, follow- 
ing his sisters in the flowing stream of youthful connections. Young 
people in those days, scarcely waiting to reach maturity, chose their part- 
ners and marched on with rapid and joyous steps to the temple of Hymen. 
The companion of Samuel Griswold was Susannah, daughter of Christo- 
pher Huntington, and the wedding took place on her 17th birth-duy, Dec. 
10, 1685. 

About the middle of the 18th century, a branch of the Grisvv'^old family 
of Norwich removed to Sharon, Ct. It consisted of three brothers, Fran- 
cis, Daniel, and Adonijah, grandsons of Capt. Samuel Griswold. Capt. 
Adonijah Griswold was in the army of the Revolution. 

12 



178 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The grave-stone of Capt. Samuel Griswold has the following epitaph ; 

Here lies interred ye 

Remains of Capt. Sam 

uel Griswold the first 

Captain of the 2d 

Company of train bands 

in Norwich. He was 

born in Norwich 

Septr 1665 and died 

on ye 9th day of 

DecemV 1740 in 

the 76"^ year 

of his ao;e. 



XIX. Hendt. 

This name is identical with Hende, Hendys, and Handy. Richard 
Hendy seems to have been one of the first purchasers of Norwich, and to 
have had an early allotment in the neighborliood of the town-plot. He 
also shared in the first divisions of land, but there is no evidence of his 
actual residence at any time in the settlement. In 1660 and '61 a person 
of this name was at work upon vessels at New London and Newport. A 
Richard Handy, four or five years later, was proprietor of a mill built by 
John Elderkin on the Menunkatesuck river at Ivillingworth, and died at 
that place, Aug. 4, 1670. This mill at Ivillingworth, and fifty acres of 
land on Westward Hill in Norwich, were among his assets.* The same 
year the townsmen of Norwich directed that the children of Richard 
Hendy, deceased, should have a share in the divisions of common land 
equal with other proprietors. From these and other concurrent facts, it 
is evident that Richard Hendy, the Norwich proprietor, and Richard 
Handy, of Killingworth, were one and the same person. 

Hannah, the wife of Richard Handy, was a daughter of John Elder- 
kin. Only three children appear as heirs, Jonathan, Richard, and Han- 
nah. Elderkin was their guardian, and settled the estate. Richard lived 
in the family of Elderkin, and became an inhabitant of Norwich. Han- 
nah married Samuel Belding of Wethersfield, Jan. 14, 1685. 

* Conn. Col. Bee., 2, 191. 

t The author is indebted for this fact and other information concerning: Eichard 
Handy of Killingworth, to R. D. Smith, Esq., of Guilford. Miss Sally Handy, the 
last of the name in Guilford, died Feb. 28, 1849, almost a centenarian. She was 
bom March 20, 1750. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 179 



XX. Howard. 

The house-lot of Thomas Howard has the same date as those of Fitch 
and Mason. Of his antecedent history no information has been obtained. 
His family registry at Norwich is as follows : 

"Thomas Howard and Mary Wellman were married in January, 166G. Children : 
Mary born in Dec. 1667. Sarah in Feb. 1669. Martha in Feb. 1672, and died one 
month after. Thomas born in March 1673, and Benjamin in June 1675." 

Thomas Howard was slain at the Narragansett fort fight, Dec. 17, 
1G75. The County Court settled the estate in the following manner: to 
the relict twenty-four pounds, with a third of the profits of the lands dur- 
ing life ; to Thomas, sixty pounds ; to Benjamin, thirty-two ; to Mary, 
thirty-two ; to Sarah, thirty. John Calkins and John Biix-hard to be 
overseers. 

In August, 1677, Mrs. Howard became the wife of William Moore, 
and removed with him to Windham, where Mr. Moore died, April 28,. 
1728, aged 87. 



Huntington. 

The Huntington pedigree offers a good illustration of the uncertainty 
of tradition, even when the details appear to have been carefully pre- 
served, and the lapse of time is not more than a century. The Rev. 
Joseph Huntington, of Coventry, Ct., of the fourth generation from the 
first emigrant, collected and embodied the reminiscences that had been 
preserved in the family concerning their progenitor, which were in sub- 
stance these : 

That the ancestor of the family, Simon Huntington, was a citizen of 

Norwich in England, who, during the reign of Charles the First, (about 

1640,) embarked witli his wife and three sons for America; that he was 

a Puritan, suffering from persecution, but liad a brother Samuel who was 

captain of the king's life-guard, and liigli in the royal favor ; that the said 

Simon Huntington was nearly fifty years of age, his wife some years 

younger, and their three sons, Christopher, Simon, and Samuel, in the 

bloom of youth ; and that they made tlieir course for the mouth of Con- 

f necticut river. "But our progenitor, (says the MS.,) being seized with a- 

J violent fever and dysenteiy, died witiiin sight of the sliore ; whither he 

» was brought, and now lies buried, either in Saybrook or Lyme, as both 

■j towns were but one at first." 

The above statement was long unquestioned, and has been repeated 
and perpetuated in various narratives and historical annals. It is, how- 



180 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

ever, ascertained from authentic documents that the family arrived at an 
earlier date and upon a different part of the coast, and the other incidents 
mentioned have not been substantiated by later inquiries. 

The church record at Roxbury, Mass., contains the following entry, in 
the hand-writing of the Rev. John Eliot, who was then the minister of 
that place : 

"Margaret Huntington, widow, came in 1633. Her husband died by the way, of 
the small pox. She brought children with her." 

The rest is left blank. The name of the husband is not mentioned, nor 
the names or number of the children, but the record makes it evident that 
this emigrant family landed in Massachusetts and not at Saybrook, and if 
the husband was buried on the coast, it was more likely to be on Nantas- 
ket beach than on the banks of the Connecticut. 

The widow Margaret Huntington united with Roxbury church, and is 
afterward found at Windsor, Ct., as the wife of Thomas Stoughton, the 
family having removed thither in 1635 or '36. 

Tradition is uniform in naming the husband who died on the voyage, 
'Simon, and a letter registered in an ancient volume of Connecticut Records 
that has been recently brought to light,* enables us to settle some points 
respecting this Huntington family, that were formerly left doubtful; viz., 
the number of the children, the order of seniority of the sons, and the 
.maiden name of the mother. 

This letter, written from Norwich, England, April 20, 1650, and ad- 
. dressed to "Cozen Christopher Huntington," acknowledges a letter from 
.liirn dated at Seahrook, Sept. 20, 1649, and is signed, 

" Your loving uncle, 

Peter Baret." 

It relates principally to the disposition to be made of certain remittances 
that had been forwarded by the writer to his brother Stawton, [Stoughton,] 
amounting to £140, which he directs to be divided in certain proportions, 
as his gift, between the three brothers and their sister Ann.f 

We learn from this letter that the children of Margaret Huntino-ton 
were four in number : three sons, Christopher, Simon, and Thomas, appa- 
rently in this order of seniority, and a daughter Ann, whose position in 

* C. J. Hoadly, Esq., State Librarian, has recovered a long-missing volume of the 
Records of the Particular and Probate Court from 1650 to 1663, and two volumes of 
Land and Miscellaneous Records, 1640 to 1656, whose existence was not known. In 
■ one of these latter volumes, the letter referred to is found. 

\ William Huntington, who settled at Salisbury, Mass., is the ancestor of a distinct 
line of Huntingtons. His relationship, if there was any, with the family of the widow 
^Margaret, has not been ascertained. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 181 

the line is uncertain. The whole group, at the time of their emigration, 
were probably under eight years of age. 

The letter shows also that the mother of the family was originally 
Margaret Baret, of Norwich, Eng. From Bloomfield's History of that 
ancient town, we learn that Christopher Baret was Mayor of Norwich in 
1G34, and again in 1G48. It is not unlikely that this Mayor was the 
father or a near relative of INIargaret, and that from him the oft-repeated 
name of Christopher first crept into the Huntington nomenclature. 

Of the daughter, Ann, nothing further is known. We may presume 
that her uncle's marriage dowry of £27 would assist in settling her eligi- 
bly in life, and we may yet obtain some fortunate hint that will show into 
what family she was ingrafted. 

Thomas Huntington, though apparently the youngest of the brothers,* 
was the first admitted to political privileges. He was made a freeman by 
the General Court at Hartford in May, 1G57 ; Christopher in May, 1C58 ; 
Simon, not till after his settlement in Norwich, 1663. 

Thomas Huntington was one of the company that first purchased and 
settled Newark in New Jersey. This company was gathered from the 
■towns on the southern coast of Connecticut, from Milford to New London 
inclusive, and had the Rev. Abraham Pierson for their spiritual guide. 
Previous to their departure from Connecticut, a body of the planters met 
at Branford, and adopted, Oct. 30, 1660, certain ''fundamental agreements 
touching their intended design." This was signed by twenty-three "heads 
of families," of whom Thomas Huntington was one. 

He is subsecjuently traced at Newark, as sergeant of the train-band in 
1675; afterward, as one of the seven townsmen to whom the municipal 
aflfairs of the plantation were intrusted, and finally as deputy to the As- 
sembly in 1658.t He had a son, Samuel, who continued the line in New 
Jersey. 



XXI. CiiRisTOPiiEii Huntington. 

Christopher and Simon Huntington probably settled at Saybrook as 
soon as they attained their majority. Christopher was there in 1649, 
apparently engaged in trade, and had written to his uncle Baret in Eng- 
land, for consignments of cloth and shot. In 1651, he was one of five 
persons who seized a Dutch vessel that was on the coast trading illegally 

* From the letter of his uncle, Peter Baret, in 1G50, Thomas seems to have been the 
only one of the ehildren then under age. lie directs that the bonus of Thomas shall 
"he jiut into some good hand and security taken for it, till he become able to em])loy 
it," while the others receive their shares at once. Thomas was probably IG or 17 years 
of age. 

t Gen. Hist. Reg., 8, 186. 



182 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

with the Indians. He married Ruth, daughter of Wilham Rockwell of 
Windsor, Oct. 7, 1652. They lost one child, and perhaps more than one, 
in infancy, and when the removal to Norwich took place, the parents had 
only their little daughter, Ruth, to carry through the wilderness. But a 
blessing soon descended upon their new home ; a son was born, a second 
Christopher, Nov. 1st, 16G0.* 

The first horn male in Norwich. 

The children of Christopher Huntington were subsequently increased 
to seven in number, while Simon had a family of ten. They both lived 
to embrace their children's children, and to see the family hives swarm 
and emigrants pass off to alight in the woods and wastes of Windham, 
Mansfield, and Lebanon. 

Thomas, the second son, born in 1G64, was one of the early settlers of 
Windham. 

Christopher Huntington, 1st, died in 1G91, as is indicated by the pro- 
bate of his estate that year. No other record gives the date. He was 
probably buried in the Gager and Post burial-ground, and no stone marks 
his grave. 

The second Christopher Huntington, the first-born son of Norwich, 
executed the office of Town Clerk and Recorder for twenty years, and 
was deacon of the church from 1696 to 1735. 

The two wives of Deacon Christopher were Sarah Adgate, and Judith, 
widow of Jonathan Brewster. He had a family of twelve children ; seven 
sons and four daughters survived him. His oldest child, Ruth, was the 
mother of Di*. Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of the first Indian school at 
Lebanon, and the first Pi-esident of Dartmouth College. 

* What a pleasant excitement this event must have caused in the young plantation ! 
The inliabitants, well housed, with plenty of corn, beans and pumpkins in store, (not 
to mention acorns, for coffee,) were reposing after the toils of the first arduous season, 
and liad leisure to engage in huskings, nuttings, oyster-parties, neighborly visits, and 
conference-meetings. And lo ! a child of promise appears, the herald of a numerous 
race. Norwich has not only daughters, but a son, to wliom the right of primogeniture 
belongs. How swiftly tlie news passes from house to house ! What congratulations 
and kindly inquiries are dropped at tiie door. What lively sallies are indulged, and 
adventurous calculations made respecting future rates of increase, and conjectures how 
the population will stand ten, twenty, or a hundred years hence ! What a thronging to 
the baptism of the little Christopher. He is wrapped perhaps in some sacred child- 
blanket brought from England, which is kept as a venerated relic of ancestral drapery. 
The blessed Mr, Fitch performs the ceremony with so much unction, that the audience 
is moved, and the women in little mob caps wipe their eyes. As they go out of meet- 
ing, one says to another, " A precious sarmont ! " or, perhaps, " A solemn sarcum- 
stance ! " — while a young damsel whispers to her companion, " Didn't he look peerl for 
such a young one 1 I wish Christenings would come every Sunday ! " 



HISTORY OP NORWICH 



183 



Slabs of gray stone, broad, lo.v, and quaintly carved, point out the spot 
where this worthy deacon, the sou of the wilderness, was laid. 




OV iDHj C -^ C HAT $ T OPHE, U l-EYKTlhl^j 
TON OT rtOHWTdH- ^ 30R!\r KOV^/W-| 

^EAJ<. UOY^AH^ IN §- OFTTCE 

or A t>y^A con W X)t:ed ArKFL-r 

2^>/)3S-^U^ r/S-Y^ Orn/:s AGE 

ni:MEN'Tb MORI. 




'^!W^^41niJ^'iV^i1^^fe5K^M#tVJ^f^;^^^^ 



184 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Christopher Huntington, 3cl, was born in 1686. Christopher Hunting- 
ton, 4th, born in 1719, was a physician in the parish of New Concord. 
Tliese four Christophers were in the direct line, each tlie oldest son of his 
father, but the fiftli Christopher was the youngest son of the fourtli. He 
succeeded his father as a physician in New Concord, or Bozrali, wliere he 
died in 1821. His oldest son, tlie sixtli Christopher, settled in Hartford, 
where he died in 1834, and with him the direct line of the Christophers 
ends, other names in the family of the last-mentioned Christopher taking 
the place of the old heir loom. 



XXn. Simon Huntington. 

The title of Deacon became very early a familiar appendage to the 
name of Huntington. Out of twenty deacons of the first church, seven 
have been Huntingtons,* six of whom held the ofiice over thirty years 
each. In the line of Simon, the deaconship descended from father to son 
througli four successive generations, Simon, 1st, Simon, 2d, Ebenezer, and 
Simon, 3d, covering a period of 120 years. Deacon Barnabas Hunting- 
ton of Franklin was also a progenitor of deacons.! Other churches in 
the vicinity have been prone to select their ministering servants from the 
same cognomen. Near the close of tlie liist century there were six Deacon 
Huntingtons officiating at one period, in as many different parislies of 
Norwicli and the neigliboring towns. 

Simon Huntington, the proprietor, was luiited to Sarah, daughter of 
Joseph Clarke of Saybrook, in October, 1653. They lived together fifty- 
three years, and she survived him fifteen, dying in 1721, at the age of 88. 
Tliis was probably the earliest, but not the only one of the first thirty-five 
w'edded pairs, that could have celebrated the golden period of their con- 
nubial life, if at that day such festivals had been in vogue. 

Deacon Simon left an estate appraised at £275. The inventory of his 
books may be worth quoting as a specimen of what was doubtless a feir 
library for a layman in 1706. 

* Eight, if we include the first Christopher Huntiugton, who is usually placed on the 
list ; but there does not appear to be any contemporary evidence that he held the office. 
The statement is derived from minutes made by Dr. Lord, in which the first Christo- 
pher was probably confounded with the second. 

t " The old Franklin homestead was for a long period in the possession of deacons, 
and what is not a little remarkable, these deacons, each in bis day and generation, kept 
tavern under the sign of the Seven Stars, which shone with steady lustre for the ben- 
efit and bountiful cheer of wayfarers on the old Lebanon road." Speech of Hon. 
Asahel Huntington of Salem, Mass., at the Huntington Gathering at Norwich, Sejjt. 
3, 1857. 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 185 

"A great Bible 10s. Another great bible 8s. Rogers his seven treatises, 5s. A 
practical Catecise Is. 6c?. William Dyer, Is. Mr. Moody's Book 8c?. Thomas 
Hooker's Doubting Christian, 9<:/. New England Psalm Book, Is. Mr. Adams' Sar- 
mon. The bound book of Mr. Fitch and John Rogers 2s. The same unbound 8d. 
The day of doom 10c?." 

At the time of Deacon Simon's death, his six sons and three daughters 
were all heads of families. His sons-in-law were Solomon Tracy, Dea. 
Caleb Forbes of Preston, and Jose})h Backus. Four of his sons, Simon, 
Nathaniel, Daniel, and James, settled near their parents, in Norwich, 
though not all in one parish. Joseph went to Windham, and Samuel to 
Lebanon. 

The oldest son, Simon, born in Saybrook before the removal to Nor- 
wich, married Lydia Gager, Oct. 8, 1G83, and had four children. The 
oldest of these, bearing his own name, the third Simon in direct descent, 
was the person killed by the bite of a rattlesnake just after he became of 
age, as previously related in this work. 

This second Deacon Simon Huntington had two other sons, besides the 
one so suddenly removed, viz., Ebenezer and Joshua, and in the series 
descending from these are found several names of more than common dis- 
tinction. The last-named son was born Dec. 30, 1698, and is known in 
local tradition as Capt. Joshua. He was a noted merchant, beginning 
business at nineteen, and pursuing it for twenty-seven years, during which 
time it is said that lie traded more by sea and land than any other man in 
Norwich. In the prime of life, activity and usefulness, he took the yellow 
fever in New York, came home sick, and died the 27th of August, 1745, 
aged 47.* He was the father of Gen. Jabez Huntington, of whom more 
will be said hereafter. 

Among the Huntingtons of note in this and the neighboring towns, 
besides the clerks and deacons already mentioned, we might enumerate 
five or six judges of the common courts, five members of Congress, one of 
them President of the Continental Congress and Governor of the State, 
and six or seven who acquired the military rank of colonels and generals, 
one of them a brigadier-general in the army of the Revolution. Of the 
clergy, also, a considerable list of Huntingtons might be made without 
going out of New London county for their nativity.f 

The name has also been widely disseminated in other States besides 
Connecticut, and rendered honorable by the talents and virtues of those 
who have borne it. But it is not on this account wholly that we give it 
special prominence in these details, but rather for tliis reason, that the 

* His epitaph says, " Very justly lamented by the survivors." 

t The Genealogical Memoir of the Huntington Family, published by Rev. E. B. 
Huntington of Stamford, is a work of great interest and value. It embodies the 
results of years of patient research, and is clear, full, and almost exhaustive in its 
details. 



186 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Huntingtons are the only family among the proprietors, with whom any 
connection has hitherto been traced with Norwich in England. As we 
have seen, Margaret Baret, the mother of Christopher and Simon Hunt- 
ington, appears to have been a native of Norwich, and it is not improbable 
that her children were also born there. 



XXIII. WiLLiAAi Hyde. 

"William Hide, or Hyde — the first mode of spelling being the most 
ancient — is found at Hartford before 1640, a resident and proprietor. 
The period of his emigration is not known. He removed to Saybrook, 
perhaps as early as 1648. His daughter Hester, who married John Post 
in 1652, probably came with her parents from the old world, but his son 
Samuel, born about 1636, may have been a native of Hartford. No 
other children are known. 

On his removal to Norwich, he sold his house and home-lot to Francis 
Bushnell, and other property to Robert Lay.* He died Jan. 6, 1681-2. 
His age is not known, but he was styled "old Goodman Hide" in 1679. 
His will was proved in the county court, June, 1682, and distribution 
ordered to the heirs of his son Samuel, and to his daughter Plester, wife 
of John Post. 



XXIV. Samuel Hyde. 

" The marriage of Samuel Hyde with Jane Lee was in June Anno Dom. 1659." — 
[Norwich Records.] 

Thomas Lee, an emigrant, coming from England with his family to 
settle in America, died on the passage. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Phebe Brown, with her three children, Thomas, Sarah, and Jane, 
completed the voyage, and are afterward found at Saybrook, or Lyme, 
where the relict married Greenfield Larrabee. Samuel Hyde's wife was 
the step-daughter of Larrabee. 

After the removal to Norwich, the younger Hyde appears to have 
formed at first but one family with his father, though he after\yard settled 

* The sales are registered at Saybrook, with the following receipt : 
I William Hide of Mohegan do acknowledge to have received of Robert Lay of Six 
Mile Island the full and just sum of forty pounds which was the first payment specified 
in the agreement made 25th day of January 1659 for all the lands I had at Potapauge. 
Witness my hand 5lh of May 1660. 

William C C Hide. 
his mark. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 187 

at the West Farms. In August, IGGO, on the Hyde home-lot, in a newly 
erected habitation, standing upon the border of the Avilderness, with a 
heavy forest growth in the rear, a new member, a welcome addition to 
the settlement, made her appearance. This was Elizabeth, daughter of 
Samuel and Jane Hyde, — 

The first child horn of English 'parentage in Norwich. 

"We may imagine that this little God-gift was fostered with tender care, 
and regarded with peculiar interest and favor by the community, as a 
token of prosperous import, — the herald of a new generation, — the prom- 
ise and pledge of multiplied descendants. 

In due time this first-born daughter of the town married Richard Lord, 
and removed to the sea-coast. 

"Elizabeth the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Lord was born Oct 28, 1683." — 
[Lyme Records.] 

So thickly the generations crowd upon each other, — mother, daughter, 
and grand-daughtei", probal)ly born within the compass of forty-five years. 

Phebe, the second daughter of Samuel and Jane Hyde, bom in Janu- 
uary, 1663, married Matthew Griswold of Lyme. The two sisters were 
thus pleasantly settled in the old neighborhood of their mother, upon the 
border of the Sound. The Lees and Larrabees were at Giant's Neck, 
and the Gi'is wolds at Black Hall, — two of the most conspicuous and eligi- 
ble situations on that breezy portion of the coast. 

Samuel Hyde did not live to see the settlement of his daughter.s. He 
died in 1677, leaving seven children, the youngest an infiint, and all sons 
but the two daughters above mentioned. From various incidental refer- 
ences, it appears that his relict, Mrs. .Jane Hyde, married John Birchard. 

The five sons of Samuel Hyde were speedily multiplied into a numer- 
ous body of descendants. 

1. Samuel married Elizabeth, daughter of John Calkins, Dec. 16, 
1690. He lived first at West Farms, now Franklin, but removed to 
Windham, and afterward to Lebanon, where he died in 1742, aged 77. 

He was the grandfather of Capt. Walter Hyde, whose monumental 
inscription in the Lebanon cemetery states that he joined the American 
array in 1776, with an independent company of which he had command, 
and died at Greenwich, Sept. 18, 1776, aged 41. 

He was also the ancestor of Col. Elijah Hyde, a neighbor and friend of 
Gov. Trumbull, who conmianded a regiment of light horse during the war 
for liberty, and was on duty with the northern army at the surrender of 
Burgoyne ; and of Gen. Caleb Hyde, who at the period of the Revolu- 
tion was a sheriff in Berkshire county, Mass., but afterward settled in 
western New York. 



188 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

2. John Hyde, the second son of the proprietor Samuel, married Expe- 
rience Abel. He lived upon a farm on Wawekus Hill. Though he him- 
self died at the age of 60, his relict lived to be near 90, and their family 
of nine children all lived to be heads of families, six of them ranging in 
age from 77 to 90 years at their decease. 

The longevity of this family is noticed as one illustration, out of many 
that might be brought, to show that life was not shortened by removal to 
a new country, but that the active, plain, frugal, and yet comfortable mode 
of living then prevalent, — the first hardships and hazards of a frontier life 
having passed away, — was favorable to health, strength, and long life. 

3. William Hyde, the third son of the proprietor Samuel, inherited the 
homestead of his grandfather William, in the town-plot. The number of 
his days exceeded even those of his long-lived brothers. He died Aug. 
8, 1759, in the 90th year of his age. His Avife was Ann, daughter of 
Richard Bushnell, and of their ten children, nine left descendants. 

William, their oldest son, born in 1702, was the first of the name of 
Hyde in this country to receive a collegiate education. He graduated at 
Yale in 1721, and entered immediately into a promising sphere of useful- 
ness in his native town, but was early removed by death.* 

Two other sons of the second William built houses by the side of their 
father, upon portions of the original Hyde home-lot. 

Richard Hyde, who built and occupied the stone house near his father, 
was a man in high local repute, as captain, justice, and judge. He was 
also popular as a social companion and a narrator of traditionary lore.f 

Jedidiah, the third son of William, 2d, became a Separatist in religion, 
and was ordained in 1746 as a minister of that denomination. 

Elisha, the fourth son of William, occupied the old homestead, and was 
the ftither of Elisha Hyde, Esq., third Mayor of Norwich city. 

4 and 5. Thomas and Jabez, younger sons of Samuel the proprietor, 
settled at the West Farms, (Franklin,) where they died at the ages of 82 
and 85 years. The late Judge Hyde of Norwich town, and Lewis Hyde 
of Yantic, are among the descendants of Jabez. Other branches of the 
same line are widely disseminated in western New York, Pennsylvania, 
and states yet father west. 

The five sons of the proprietor Samuel had forty children, of whom 
twenty-three were sons, and twenty-one married and reared families of 
children. This accounts for the rapidity with which the name spread 



* Hempstead's Diary has this notice : 

June 11, 1738. "Received news of the death of William Hide Jun. of Norwich 
aged 35. He had 150 convulsion fitts in two days. He was brought up at the College 
and hath been Captain and justice of the peace many years." 

t Elihu, second son of Richard, removed to Lebanon, N. H., and was one of the first 
magistrates of that town. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 189 

through the country, — a rapidity that seems unexampled when considered 
in connection with the fact that all are derived from Samuel, whose first 
son was born in May, 1665. 

An enumeration made in 1779, showed upwards of twenty families of 
Hydes, numbering over 150 members, in the town-plot and western part 
of Norwich. And notwithstanding tlie removals to other parts of the 
country, the census of 1791 records thirteen families of tlie name in 
Franklin, and eight others in Norwich or its immediate vicinity.* 



XXV. Leffingwell. 

Thomas Leflfingwell, according to minutes preserved among his descend- 
ants, was a native of Croxhall in England. The period of his emigration 
has not been ascertained. In his testimony before the Court of Commis- 
sioners at Stonington in 1705, he says he was acquainted witli Uncas in 
the year 1637, and was knowing to the assistance rendered by the sachem 
to the English, then and ever after, during his life. According to his age 
as given in depositions, he must have been born about the year 1622, — 
therefore, at the time of the Pequot war, not more than fifteen or sixteen 
years of age.f 

The earliest notices of his name connect him v/ith Saybrook. Fi'om 
the Colonial records we learn that in March, 1650, a petition was pre- 
sented "from the inhabitants of Saybrook by Matthew Griswold and Tho: 

* Chancellor Walworth of Saratoga Springs is descended in equal degrees from Wil- 
liam Hyde and Thomas Tracy, through their sons, Samuel Hyde and Jolin Tracy, all 
of wliom were original proprietors of Norwich. Appliia Hyde, of the fifth generation 
from William, 1st, daughter of the Rev. Jedidiah Hyde, the Separatist minister, and 
his wife, Jerusha Tracy, of the fifth generation from Thomas, 1st, married in 1782, 
Benjamin Walworth, a native of Groton. They settled at Bozrah, then a part of Nor- 
wich, but made an independent town in 1786. lleuben Hyde Walworth, the third of 
tlieir ten children, was there born Oct. 26, 1788. 

The Hyde Genealogy, published by Chancellor Walworth, is a work of great value 
in the line of family history, embodying a vast amount of pedigree, and displaying 
clearness of perception and skill in arrangement, as well as unwearied perseverance 
and accuracy in research. It forms a grand memorial record of paternity and lineage, 
spreading far and wide, but taking the Nine-Milcs-Square of Norwich as the center from 
which it radiates. Such a work is a monument to perpetuate the name of the author, 
more lasting than statues of marble or pillars of granite. 

t A tradition has ol)tained in some brandies of the family, that Thomas Lcflingwell 
came to this country from Yorkshire, at fourteen years of age, but returned to England 
at twenty-one, and married there Marv White. When he emigrated a second time, he 
brought with him his youngest brother Stephen, fifteen years of age, leaving seven or 
eight other brothers in the old country. The author is unable to decide whether these 
traditions should be ranked as fable or fact. 



190 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Leppijigwell."* The births of his children are also registered at Saybrook, 
but under the simple heading of " Children of Thomas Leffingwell," — the 
name of the mother not being mentioned. The list is as follows : 

"Eachell born 17 March 1648; Thomas 27 August 1649 ; Jonathan 6 Dec. 1650; 
Joseph 24 Dec. 1652 ; Mary 16 Dec. 1654 ; Nathaniel 11 Dec. 1656." 

It is probable also that Samuel Leffingwell, who married Anna Dickin- 
son Nov. 16, 1687, and died in 1691, was the son of Thomas, though his 
birth is not found recorded. 

Following Mr. Leffingwell to his new home in Norwich, we find him 
an active and influential member of the plantation. He was one of the 
first two deputies of the town to the General Coui't, in October, 1662; 
an officer of the first train-band and during Philip's war, lieutenant under 
Capt. Denison in his famous band of marauders, that swept so many times 
through Narragansett, and scoured the country to the sources of the Quin- 
ebaug. 

He lived to old age, but the record of his death does not give his years, 
and no memorial stone marks his grave. 

"Lieutenant Thomas Leffingwell died about 1710. 
Mrs. Mary Leffingwell died Feb. 6, 1711." 

The staff of the venerated lieutenant, reputed to have been brought 
with him from his native place, and bearing his initials on its silver head, 
is now in the possession of one of his descendants. Rev. Thomas Leffing- 
well Shipman of Jewett City, Conn. This memorial staff is interesting 
on the score of antiquity, but far more so from its association with the 
venerable men of successive generations to whom it has been a staff of 
support. It calls up from the misty past the image of the old soldier, or 
the deacon, on the Sabbath day, slowly marching up to his seat under the 
pulpit ; we see his white hair, and hear the steady sound of the staff 
brought down at every step. 

Thomas Leffingwell, Jun. and Mary Bushnell were married in Septem- 
ber, 1672, and might have celebrated their golden wedding in 1722, with 
a house-full of prosperous descendants gathered around them. The hus- 
band died March 5, 1723-4, leaving five daughters, all married to Bush- 
nells and Tracys, and three sons, Thomas, John, and Benajah. 

Mrs. Mary Leffingwell long survived her partner, as the epitaph on her 
grave-stone proves. 

* Col. Rec, 1, 205. Leppingwell and Lcppenwell often appear on the early Norwich 
records. It is suggestive of the supposed origin of the name, — Leaping-well, denoting 
a bubbling or boiling spring. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 191 

IN 

MEMORY 

of an agccl nnrsing 

Mother of GOD'S New- 

eno'lish Israel, viz. Mrs. 

Mary Leffinp:well, wife 

to Ensign Thomas Lef- 

fingwell Gent" who died 

Sept. ye 2'' A. D. 

1745. Aged 91 years. 

The inventory of Ensign Leffingwell in 1724 shows that he was richly 
furnished not only with the household comforts and conveniences of that 
era, but with articles of even luxury and elegance. He had furniture 
and hnen in abundance, wooden ware, and utensils of iron, tin, pewter, 
and silver.* 

Wearing apparel valued at £27. 

Wig, 20s. Walking-staff with silver head, 20s. 

Rapier with silver hilt and belt, £G. 

A French gun, £3. Silver watch, £5. 

3 tankards, 2 dram-cups. 

4 silver cups, one with two handles. 
Copper pennies and Erabians,t £6.18.7.- 
Total valuation of estate, £9793.9.11. 

It is doubtful whether, at that time, any other estate in the town equaled 
this in value. 

The third Thomas LefRngwell, son of the Ensign and born in 1674, is 
distinguished as Deacon Thomas. He mari-ied Lydia, daughter of Solo- 
mon Tracy, and died July 18, 1733. He had six children. 

His brothers, Capt. John and Benajah Leffingwell, had large families : 
the former, eight daughters and four sons ; the latter, eight sons and four 
daughters. Capt. John Leffingwell married, first, Sarah Abell, and sec- 
ond, Mary Hart of Farmington. 

The first wife is commemorated in the following epitaph : 

Here lyes ye Body of 

that Worthy, Virtuous 

and most injcneous and 

jentecl "Woman, Mrs 

Sara Leffingwell, 

who Dyed May ye 

9th, 17.30. Aged 

39 years. 

* In the inventory of Nathaniel Leffingwell at an earlier date, we find a castor hat, 
one coffee-cup, a heaker, a pair of campaign boots, &c. 
t An Arabian is supposed to have been a small gold coin. 



192 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Benajah Leffingwell married Joanna Christophers of New London. 
Col. Christopher Leffingwell of the Revolutionary period was the third 
of his eight sons. 

Thomas Leffingwell, 4th, (son of Deacon Thomas,) married Elizabeth, 
daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Loi'd, Jan. 23, 1729. He died in 1793, 
in the 90th year of his age. 

Thomas Leffingwell, 5th, born in 1732, died in December, 1814, aged 
82. These five generations were in dii'ect succession, each the oldest son 
of the oldest son, but the lineage is here interrupted, as Thomas the 5th 
died unmarried. 

The Leffingwell tree has a multitude of branches. Samuel Leffingwell, 
who married Hannah Giffi^rd, March 2, 1714-15, w^as the progenitor of 
several large families. A district in the southern part of the township is 
known by the familiar designation of Leffingwell-town, from the predom- 
inance of the name in that neighborhood. In a field upon old Leffingwell 
land in this district there is a quiet village of the dead, where Leffingwells, 
Chapmans, Posts, and other names of the vicinity, are found. Here is the 
grave of Dea. Andrew Leffingwell, who died in 1803. He was the son of 
Samuel, and born Dec. 12, 1724. 

Some of the Leffingwells, who lived on farms, have the traditionary 
renoAvn of having been stalwart men, able horsemen, enterprising, robust, 
dread-nought kind of people. They would ride to Boston in a day, with 
a led horse for relief, and return on the morrow, unconscious of fatigue. 
One of them, it is said, performed the feat with a single horse, but the 
noble animal was sacrificed by the exploit, being found dead the next 
morning.* 



XXVL Olmstead, or Holmstead. 

Richard and John Olmstead w^ere kinsmen and wards of James Olm- 
stead, who came from England in 1G32,* and died at Hartford in Septem- 
ber, 1640.i 



* On one of these gallops to Boston, a spirited dog accompanied his master, but the 
next morning, when the fiimily arose, he was at home, whining at the threshold for 
admittance. It was afterward ascertained that at night, in Boston, he had been acci- 
dentally shut out of his master's lodging, upon which he turned immediately upon the 
track and followed the trail home, traveling the whole distance between nine o'clock at 
night and six in the morning. 

Such traditionary stories are usually exaggerative ; but even then they have a degree 
of interest, and are worth collecting, as examples of growth by repetition, and the mag- 
nifying power of common report. 

t Gen. Hist. Reg., 14, 301. 

X Conn. Col. Rec., 1, 447. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 193 

John Olmsteacl married Elizabeth Marvin, and settled at Saybrook, 
where he was appointed leather-sealer in 1650. He is mentioned inci- 
dentally upon the Saybrook records in 1661, as "John Olmsted of Mohe- 
gan, shoemaker," which shows that he had removed to the new plantation. 
At this place, however, he appears as a doctor or chirurgeon, and was 
undoubtedly the first physician of the settlement, though the articles enu- 
merated in his inventory would imply that he still continued his practice 
with the last and lap-stone. For several years he was on the grand jviry 
of the county. 

He possessed a considerable estate, and was very precise respecting the 
date and bounds of his grants. Though the H. is uniformly given to his 
name by the Norwich recorders, it was not used by himself. The blazed 
trees and mere-stones by which he indicated the corners and limits of his 
lots, were marked I. 0.* 

He died Aug. 2, 1686; his age was about 60. No children are men- 
tioned. He left most of his estate to his wife, who made over to his two 
nephews at Norwalk a large tract of land (stated at 2,000 acres) owned 
by him in the new plantation at Windham. Several slaves that he pos- 
sessed were to receive their freedom at the death of his wife. 

Mrs. Olmstead died in 1689. Her will, made in October of that year, 
was contested by the relatives of her husband, but confii-med by the Gen- 
eral Court. She bequeathed £50 to the poor of Norwich, and £10 to Mr. 
Fitch; recognizing also by legacies Sergt. Richard Bushnell, "brother 
Adgate's four children," and the children of her husband's sister Newell, 
but left most of her real estate to her "friend and kinsman Samuel Lo- 
throp," whom she appoints executor. This was the second Samuel 
Lothrop, whose wife was Hannah Adgate. The word hinsman, as used 
in ancient records, has a wide range of meaning. Deacon Adgate's sec- 
ond wife was the sister of Mrs. Olmstead, but Plaunah, the wife of Samuel 
Lothrop, was the child of the first wife ; and this is the only relationship 
that in this instance has been traced. 



XXVII. Pease. 

The name of John Pease appears incidentally at New London in 1 650, 
and it may be conjectured that he was a seaman, then belonging to Boston 
or Martha's Vineyard.! It is probable that he resided for a time at Say- 
brook before joining the company of Norwich proprietors, and that he took 

* On County Court Records, when his inventory was exhibited, it was written Vm- 
fiteade. 
t There was a seaman in Bostoa of this name in 1656. Geo. & Hist. Reg., 9, 142. 
13 



194 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

a family with him to the new settlement. His home-lot was at the west- 
ern limit of the town-plot, and bore the date of Nov., 1659. 

But in the course of a few years, his family, if he had one, his posses- 
sions and his character had all passed away. The Court Record for 1672 
has the following item : 

"John Pease complained of by the townsmen of Norwich for living alone, for idle- 
ness, and not duly attending the worship of God. 

" This Court orders that said Townsmen do provide that Pease be entertained into 
some suitable family he paying for his board and accommodation, and that he employ 
himself in some lawful calling, which if he neglect or refuse to do, the townsmen may 
put him out to service in some approved family. Except he dispose of his accommo- 
dations and remove out of the town." 

Again, in 1682, we find that John Pease being in arrears for town and 
ministry rates, a levy was ordered on his estate. 

It is not necessary to infer from these notices that Pease was wholly a 
worthless vagrant. He may have been a lonely, disappointed man, — a 
recluse, an anchoret, world-disgusted and unsocial, — or a secret dissenter, 
cherishing unpopular tenets, and choosing therefore to keep out of the 
way of his neighbors. Persons with any of these characteristics found 
but little sympathy in the plantations at that day. In Norwich they were 
particularly rigid in their requirements, not only of accepted inhabitants, 
or voters, but also of common town-dwellers. Men were not allowed to 
live alone, but obliged to connect themselves with some household, to have 
some specific employment, to assist in supporting the institutions of the 
town, and to appear in the house of worship on the Sabbath. 

Nothing further is certainly known of John Pease. No settlement of 
estate is found ; he is not mentioned in any subsequent division of propri- 
etary commons ; but allusions made in 1 687 and later, seem to indicate 
that he was then living. A branch of the Yantic in the western part of 
the town, near the border of Lebanon, was called Pease's brook. At the 
mouth of Pease's brook was Pease's farm ; and here, about 1690, a corn- 
mill was established. It is not improbable that John Pease had retired to 
this ti'act of land, and originated these improvements. The spot, then so 
solitary, is now jubilant with machinery, — the seat of the manufacturing 
village of Bozrahville. 



Post. 



Stephen Post, who died at Saybrook Aug. 16, 1659, is supposed to have 
been the father of John, Thomas, and Abraham Post, and it is a plausible 
conjecture that Ellener Post, [Ilelener in coimty court records,] who died 
at that place Nov. 13, 1670, was the relict of Stephen and mother of his 
childi'en 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 



195 



John and Thomas Post removed to Norwich. Abraham remained in 
Saybrook, where he was known by the title of Lieutenant, and died in 
1G90. 



XXVIII. John Post. 

The marriage of John Post and Hester Hyde, "in the last of March, 
'52," and the births of four children, are found on record at Saybrook. 
Four other children are recorded at Norwich, and they had likewise a 
daugliter Mary, not registered at either place, born probably in 1GG2, — 
comprising in all, a family of two sons and seven daughters. 

Mrs. Hester Post died Nov. 13, 1703. 

Mr. John Post died Nov. 27, 1710, aged 84 years. 

The following inscription is still legible in the grave-yard at Norwich : 





H E A R E 1 


LIES THEBO| 


D Y 


OF MR JO 


HN 


POST WHO 


DYED N O Vr 1 


27. 


1710. AGED 


8 


4 YEARS. 



Two of the daughters of John Post were united to inhabitants of New- 
London : Sarah married Capt. John Hough ; Lydia married, 1st, Abel 
Moore, — 2d, Joseph Harris. 

Two other daughters were married in Norwich : Margaret to Caleb 
Abel, and Mary to Nathaniel Rudd. 

The sons were John and Samuel. John, born at Saybrook, April 12, 
1G57, married Sarah Reynolds, and died in 1G90, leaving two young 
childi-en, John and Sarah ; but they died without issue, and no descend- 
ants in this line remain. 

Samuel Post, born in Norwich, March 8, 1G68, married Ruth Lothrop, 
and had two sons, Samuel and Natlianiel. Samuel Post, 2d, born Dec. 
22, 1G98, married Sarah Griswold of Guilford, and had an only son Sam- 
uel and several daughters. Samuel, 3d, born Feb. 12, 1736, was a gold- 
smith in New London, but after the Revolutionary war went south and 
has been no further traced. 

Nathaniel Post, son of Samuel, 1st, born in 1702, died in November, 
1799, almost a centenarian. His wife, Abigail Birchard, died in 1792, 



196 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

in lier 89tli year. They had two sons, John and Jabez. The latter, born 
in 1730, inherited the family homestead, and planted the stupendous elm 
by which it is now overshadowed. He married, 1st, Martha, daughter of 
the Rev. Jedidiah Hyde, the Separatist minister, and had two sons, Jabez 
and Jedidiah, who, after the Revolution, settled at Newtown, N. J. By a 
second wife, Lucy, daughter of Richard Hyde, he had two other sons, 
Andrew and George Washington, who settled at Lebanon, N. H. He 
had also two daughters : 1st, Anne, who married Henry Blake, (publisher 
of a newspaper at Keene, N. H.,) and after his death, Thomas L. Thomas 
of Norwich ; 2d, Lucretia, who married Ehphalet Carew, and died at the 
residence of her daughter, on a portion of the old Post home-lot, where 
she was born, July 6, 1858, aged 90. 

Henrietta Blake, the only child of Henry and Anne Blake, married 
George D. Harris of Norwich. The late Hon. Thomas L. Harris, of 
Dlinois, was their son. He was born at Norwich, Oct. 29, 181 G; gradu- 
ated at Trinity College, Hartford, 1841 ; studied law with Gov. Toucey, 
and settled in Illinois. In 1846 he enlisted in the Mexican war, and was 
noted for his gallantry at the taking of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro 
Gordo. He was elected member of Congi'ess in 1848, and continued in 
office till his death, which took place at Springfield, 111., Nov. 24, 1858. 
His life, though short, was marked by varied and exciting events. 



XXIX. Thomas Post. 

No reference to the family of this proprietor has been found at Say- 
brook. His existence seems not to be recognized any where but in Nor- 
wich. From the records of this place we learn that he married Mary 
Andrews in January, 1656, and that she died at Norwich in March, 1661, 
.and was buried in a corner of her husband's home-lot, as heretofore 
related. 

She left an infant daughter, Sarah, afterward the wife of Thomas Vin- 
cent. Mr. Post married, 2d, Rebecca Bruen, daughter of Obadiah Bruen 
of New London, Sept. 2, 1663. He died in 1701, leaving two sons, Oba- 
diah and Joseph, and two daughters, Mary and Hannah. Obadiah died 
in 1703, without issue. The daughters died at the age of 70 and upward, 
unmarried. Joseph, bom in 1681, married Maiy Post of Saybrook, and 
died in 1749, leaving an only son, Joseph, and seven daughters. Thus, 
at the end of a century, the male line in this branch of the Post family 
again commenced with a unit. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 197 

XXX. Read, (or Reed.) 

The marriage of Josiah Read to Grace, the daughter of William Hol- 
loway, took place at Marshfield in November, 16G6. At this time he had 
probably cleared his home-lot and prepared his domicile in Norwich. 
About the year 1G87, he removed from the town-plot to a farm "over 
Showtucket," and was probably the first permanent settler upon that gore 
of land which was then called the Crotch, but afterward Newent. He had 
a brother John, at thjit time living "near Pease's farm," within the present 
limits of Bozrah. 

It is probable that the brothers Josiah and John Read married sisters. 
The farm of William Holloway in Marshfield fell to his two daughters. 
It was sold, one half in 1G70, by "Josiah Reed of Norridge, in the Colony 
of Connecticut," as the inheritance of his wife Grace, and the other half 
in 1673, by "Hannah Read, formerly Holloway," whom we suppose to 
have been the wife of John. The only proof, however, is the coinci- 
dence of name. 

A third brother, Hezekiah Read, was considerably younger than the 
others. The father, whose Christian name has not been recovered, died 
in 1679, leaving Hezekiah a minor, who, in accordance with his own 
request, was committed by the court to the guardianship of his brothers, 
Josiah and John, "for his good education in the fear of God, good litera- 
ture, and some particular calling."! 

John and Hezekiah Read do not come again within the range of our 
history. It is probable that they removed fx*om the town, as in the next 
generation we find only five of the name enrolled as householders, and 
these were Josiah and his four sons, Josiah, Jr., William, John, and Jo- 
seph, — all of them "farmers in ye Crotch of ye Rivers." 

Josiah Read, the elder, died July 3, 1717. 

Mrs. Grace Read, his wife, died May 9, 1727. 

William Read died Aug. 13, 1727, leaving a wife, Mary, and an estate 
valued at £407. 



XXXI. Reynolds. 

In the lists that have been collected of emigrants to the western world 
in the days of the great Exodus, beginning with the departure of the Pil- 
grims from Holland, the name of John Reynolds is several times found. 

* Letter of Marcia Thomas of Marshfield. 

t A Joseph Read appears at New London about as early as Josiah and John, who 
may have been the father of the family. The mother of Hezekiah Read in 1680 was 
Ruth Percy. 



198 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

It appears in the sliipments for St. Christopher's,* for Virginia, and for 
New England, 

One of the name was made freeman in Massachusetts, May 6, 1635, 
and was probably the same that settled at Weymouth,! where he was liv- 
ing with a family in 1660. One went from Watertown to Wethersfield, 
and there settled before 1640. J Another of the same cognomen established 
himself at Stonington, Ct., and was accepted as an inhabitant in 1667. 
John and Jonathan Renalds were landholders in East Greenwich, Ct., in 
1672.§ 

John Reynolds, the proprietor of Norwich, was a distinct person from 
these, but perhaps a son of John of Wethersfield. He was a wheelwright 
by occupation, and removed from that part of Saybrook which is now 
Lyme. His housing and laud were sold to Wolston Brockway, Dec. 3, 
1659. 

The births of his children are recorded at Norwich, but without men- 
tioning the name of his wife. John, the oldest child, born in August, 
1655, was killed by the Indians in Philip's war, as elsewhere related. 
Stephen, another son, died Dec. 19, 1687. 

John Reynolds, the proprietor, died July 22, 1702. His will, dated 
seven days previous, shows that his family then consisted of wife Sarah, 
only son Joseph, and four married daughters, viz., Sarah Post, Mary Lo- 
throp, Elizabeth Lymon, and Lydia Miller. He bequeathed his instru- 
ments of husbandry and wheelwright tools to his son, with all his housing 
and lands, subject only to the widow's dowry. His wife Sarah and son 
Joseph were named executors, and he adds, "I do make choice of my 
loving kinsman Ensign Thomas Leffingwell overseer to be helpful to 
them or either of them." 

Joseph Reynolds, the son, was born in March, 1660, shortly before the 
removal of the family to Norwich. He married Sarah Edgerton in 1688, 
and through his four sons, John, Joseph, Stephen, and Daniel, the name 
has been perpetuated in Norwich. 

John Reynolds of the third generation (son of Joseph) married Lydia 
Lord of Lyme, an admirable Christian woman who lived to the age of 92, 
and was more than forty years a widow. She died July 16, 1786. The 
tablet to "her memory bears an inscription so suggestive in its simplicity, 
that it reveals the whole excellence of her character by giving a single 
trait : 

" Here lies a Lover of Truth." 

* Embarked from Gravesend for St. Cliristopher's, April 3, 1635, in the Paul of 
London, John Reinolds, aged 23, — do. May 21, in the Matthew of London, Jo : Rei- 
nolds, aged 20. 

Gen. Hist. Reg., 14, 349, 551. t Ibid., 3, 71, 93. 

t Ibid., 13, 301. ■ S Iliiil-, 4, 62. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 199 



XXXIL RoYCE. 



Jonathan Royce was one of the five sons of Robert Royce of New 
London, and probably the oklest, though no record of his birth has been 
found. He married Deborah, daughter of Hugh Calkins, in June, IGOO, 
according to the registry in Norwich, but at New London it is recorded 
March, 1G60-GL Allowing the latest date to be correct, the bride was 
barely 17 years of age, her birth being recorded at Gloucester, Mass., 
March 18, 164.3-4. This was a second hymeneal tie connecting the two 
families ; John Calkins of Norwich having taken for his partner Sarah 
Royce, the sister of Jonathan. 

Tlie Royce family was also connected by a double link with that of 
Samuel Lothrop ; Isaac Royce being united to Elizabeth Lothrop, and 
John Lothrop to Ruth Royce. These removed to "VYallingford. 

Jonathan Royce, the Norwich proprietor, died in 1G89. Nine of his 
ten children were living at that time. John, the oldest son, married Sarah 
Perlgo, Nov. 9, 1683, this being his 20th birth-day. He was an early 
settler in Windham. 

After the second generation, the name of Royce disappeared from the 
roll of inhabitants in Norwich. 

Robert Royce of Wallingtbrd, at his death, in 167G, left a small gratu- 
ity to each of the churches of New London, Norwich, and Wallingford, 
as a memorial of his "great affection and good-will" for the ministr}' and 
churches with which he and his family had been connected. 



XXXHL Smith. 

Nehemiah Smith was of Stratford, 1G4G, but removed to New^ Haven, 
and obtained a grant of land upon Oyster river for his accommodation in 
keeping sheep. He is occasionally called on the colonial records, "Sliep- 
herd Smith." Li 1652 he transferred his residence to New London, 
where his brother John had previously settled, and from thence came to 
Norwich in 1660, or soon afterward. In 1663 he is styled, "now of New 
Norridge." 

He appears to have had six or seven daughters, and one son ; but only 
four of the daughters can be traced into other households. Mary became 
the wife of Samuel Raymond; Elizabeth, of Josluia Raymond; Aim, of 
Thomas Bradford ; and another, (name uncertain,) of Joshua Abel. 

At New Haven, the birth and baptism of six of the children may be 
found on record, his wife Sarah being a member of the church at tliat 
place. At Norwich, in his old age, he had a wife Ann. 



200 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 



From an entry in the records of tlie county court in 1666, we learn his 
age: 

"Nehemiah Smith of Norwich declaring himself above 60 years of age and his 
brother John declaring the same at his earnest desire is freed from training." 

He died in 1G86. His only son, Nehemiah, born in 1646 at New 
Haven, settled in Groton, where he was generally designated, from the 
office that he held, Mr. Justice Smith. 

Edward Smith, a nephew of John and Nehemiah, married, June 7, 
1G63, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bliss of Norwich. He also settled 
in Groton, where he and his wife and his oldest son John, fifteen years of 
age, died on the 8th, 10th and 14th days of July, 1689, all victims of a 
fatal epidemic called the throat distemper. Another son, Obadiah, and 
seven daughters, were left orphans. Most of these found homes among 
their Norwich relatives. Obadiah Smith was chosen constable of the 
town in 1704, and it is the first time that the name of Smith, usually so 
prominent in our annals, is found attached to any office in Norwich. He 
was afterward captain of the train-band. The inscription upon his grave- 
stone is interesting on account of its rude simplicity. 



HERE LIES Ye BODY 
OF CAPt OBADIAH 
SMITH WHO DIED 
MAY 1 = 1 727 = AND 
IN ye 50H YEAR OF 
HIS AGE. 



NOW BETWEEN 

THESE CARVED STONS 

RICH TRESVER LIES 

DEER SMITH HIS BONES. 



XXXIV. Thomas Tract. 

Thomas Tracy, from Tewksbury in Gloucestershire, came to New 
England in April, 1636. His name was enrolled at Salem, Feb. 23, 
1637. 

" Thomas Tracy, ship-carpenter, received an inhabitant, upon a certificate of divers 
of Watertown, and is to have five acres of land." 

He left the Bay for the new colony on the Connecticut, probably about 
1640, and settled at Wethersfield, where he is supposed to have married 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 201 

-rtte.jddQHLJi£-E4wa¥4'M««5n in 1641. A few years later he removed to 
Saybrook, from whence, after a residence of twelve or fourteen years, he 
came to Norwich, bringing with him six sons and a daughter. Perhaps 
his wife also was then living, for neither the place nor period of her 
death has been ascertained. Two of his children, John and Thomas, 
were probably born in Wethersfield, and the others in Saybrook. Miriam, 
the daughter, was the middle member of the list, and at the time of the 
settlement about ten years of age, her brothers ranging above and below, 
from six to (perhaps) sixteen years. 

Mr. Tracy was evidently a man of talent and activity, skillful in the 
management of various kinds of business, upright and discreet. The 
confidence placed in him by his associates is manifested in the great num- 
ber of appointments which he received. His name is on the roll of the 
Legislature as representative from Norwich at twenty-seven sessions. 
The elections were semi-annual, and Mr. Tracy was chosen twenty-one 
times, beginning Oct. 9, 1662, and ending July 5, 1684. The others were 
extra sessions. 

In October, 1666, he was chosen ensign of the first train-band organized 
in Norwich, and in August, 1673, lieutenant of the New London County 
Dragoons, enlisted to fight against the Dutch and Indians. In 1678 he 
was appointed commissioner or justice of the peace. 

The second wife of Thomas Tracy was Martha, relict of John Bradford, 
whom he married in 1676. In the course of a few years he was again a 
widower, and married in 1 683, Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Foot, and 
relict, first of John Stoddard, and second of John Goodrich, both of Weth- 
ersfield. Mr. Tracy was her third husband, and she was his third wife. 

Lieut. Thomas Tracy died Nov. 7, 1685. His estate was prized at 
£560; he had about 5000 acres of land. The court ordered distribution 
as follows : to John, the oldest son, £120 ; to the other sons, and to Sergt. 
Thomas Waterman, each £70. In this distribution no mention is made 
of a widow ; and the inference is, that Mrs. Mary Tracy did not survive 
her husband. 

Late researches into the history of this family furnish evidence that 
Thomas Tracy was of honorable descent, and that his immediate ancestors 
for three generations had been distinguished for fidelity to the reformed 
religion, Richard Tracy, of Stanway, England, published a work deeply 
imbued with the spirit of Protestantism, on account of which he suffered 
nmch from persecution in the days of Queen Mary, though he escaped 
martyrdom. It is supposed that one of his sons, Nathaniel, living at 
Tewksbury, was the father of Thomas, and that the latter was born at 
that place in 1610.* 

* This is the result of an examination of the records of Gloucestershire, England, by 
tlic late F. P. Tracy of San Francisco, Cal. The evidence was such as to satLsfy hira 



202 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

No registration of the family of Thomas Tracy has been found. From 
the early appearance of his name at Salem, it is evident that his children 
were all born on this side of the ocean. In the settlement of his estate, 
the order in which they are mentioned, corresponding with other incidental 
testimony, gives the following series as their natural position : 

1. John, born not earlier than 1642, nor Uxter than 164:4. 

2. Thomas, (probably) 1646. 

3. Jonathan, 1648. His age in 1698 was stated at 50. 

4. Miriam, 1649 or 1650. She married Thomas Waterman in November, 1668. 

5. Solomon, 1651. Aged 46 in 1697, and when he died, July 9, 1732, was in his 

82d year. 

6. Daniel, 1652 ; died June 29, 1728, aged 76. 

7. Samuel; died Jan. 11, 1693, without issue, — his effects being assigned to his 
brothers and sisters. 

John Tracy so soon took his place among the inhabitants of Norwich, 
that he acquired the rank, influence, and all the privileges of a first pur- 
chaser, and as such is numbered as one of the Thirty-five. 

Thomas and Jonathan Ti'acy, second and third sons of Lieut. Thomas, 
settled upon the wild, unreclaimed lands on the east side of the Shetucket, 
then belonging to Norwich, but afterward included in Preston. Jonathan 
married, July 11, 1672, Mary, daughter of Francis Griswold. The wife 
of Thomas Tracy has not been traced. The brothers had each a lai'ge 
blessing of children, that were soon disseminated in the neighborhood, 
founding homes of their own, and assisting in the great work of clearing 
away forests and planting homes in the wilderness. 

The will of Thomas Tracy was executed April 6, 1721, but not proved 
till 1724. He probably died early in that year. 

His youngest son, Dea. Jedidiah Tracy of Preston, died June 8, 1779, 
in the 87th year of his age, his death being caused by a fall from his horse 
as he was riding to the mill. He had been deacon of the church for nearly 
fifty years, and was also a justice of the peace and representative of the 
town. He left, says a newspaper of the day, one hundred and thirty- 
seven descendants. 

Jonathan Tracy was the first town clerk of Preston, tlie first lieutenant, 
and the first justice of the peace. In an old grave-yard devoted to the 
Tracys, Forbes, and other early inhabitants of Preston, is a rough head- 
that Lieut. Thomas Tracy of Norwich was the son of Nathaniel of Tewksbury, who 
was the son of Richard, Esq., of Stanway, who was the son of Sir William, tlie ninth, 
of Toddington. 

Mr. Tracy had collected materials for a thorough historical registry of the descend- 
ants of the Lieutenant; but he died while on a political tour in western New York, 
Oct. 10, 1860, and the work for which he had made such ample preparation has not 
been pubUshed. 



HISTOEY OF NOEWICH. 



203 



stone, carved with the letters J. T. and the date 1711, which is supposed 
to point out his grave. The inventory of his estate was taken Feb. 12, 
1712. 

Solomon Tracy was a physician, and the second in Norwich of whom 
we tind any notice, — John Olmstead being the first. He was united in 
marriage, Nov. 23, 1G7G, to Sarah, daughter of Simon Huntington. She 
died in 1G83, and he married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Bliss and relict 
of Thomas Sluman. 

INSCRIPTION UPON THE GRAVE-STONE OF DR. SOLOMON TRACY. 



IN THIS SPOT OF 

EARTH IS INTERRED 

Ye EARTHY PART OF Mr 

SOLOMON TRACY 

WHO DIED IVLY Ye 9H 

1732. & IN YE 82D 

YEAR OF HIS AGE. 

THE DEAD IN S ILE NT 

LANGUAGE SAY 

TO LIVING THINKING 

READER HEARE 

O LOVING FRINDS 

DOE NOT DELAY 

BUT SPEEDILY FOR 

DETH PREPARE. 



Lydia, only daughter of Solomon Tracy, married the third Thomag 
Leffingwell. Simon Tracy, son of Solomon, married Mary Leffingwell. 
This last couple were united in 1708, and journeyed together far into the 
vale of years. Ahead-stone in the burial-ground informs us that "the 
pious, beloved, and very aged Mr. Simon Tracy, died 14th September, 
1775, in the 96th year of his age." His wife died in her 89th year. 

Solomon Tracy, second and youngest son of Solomon, removed to Can- Vy^ 
terbury. 

Daniel, the fifth son of Lieut. Thomas Tracy, inherited the paternal 
homestead in the town-jjlot. lie was twice married; first, to Abigail 
Adgate, and second, to Hannah, relict of Thomas Bingham. After a 
long, honorable and useful life, he came to an untimely end, being instan- 
taneously killed by falling from the frame-work of a bridge that had just 
been suspended over Shetucket river. 



204 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

The late Dr. Ebenezer Tracy of Micldletown, the Tracys of Scotland 
parish, (Windham,) and Major Thomas Tracy of Norwich, long of the 
firm of Avery & Tracy, who died in 1806, were descendants of Daniel 
Tracy. 



XXXV. John Tracy. 

The marriage of this young projirietor to Mary Winslow, June 10, 
1670, is recorded at Duxbury, Mass. The binde was a daughter of Josiah 
Winslow the elder,* who was brother to Governor Edwai'd Winslow of 
Plymouth. 

John and Maiy Tracy had five children, — four sons and one daughter ; 
the latter married Nathaniel Backus. The oldest son, Josiah, died in 
infancy. The others, John, Joseph, and Winslow, all had families. 

Mr. John Tracy died Aug. 16, 1702. 

Mrs. Mary Tracy died July 30, 1721. 

Mr. Tracy's inventory specifies the homestead, valued at £130, and 
seventeen other parcels of land, comprising between three and four thou- 
sand acres. He had land at Yantiok, at Bradford's brook, Beaver brook, 
Lebanon, Little Lebanon, Wawecos hill, Potapaug, at Wenungatuck, (on 
the west side of the Quinebaug, above Plainfield,) at Tadmuck hill, (east 
of the Quinebaug,) and at Mashamagwatuck, in the Nipmuck country. 
The land at Wenungatuck was part of a large tract purchased of Owan- 
eco, sachem of Mohegan. In the division of the estate it fell to Nathan- 
iel Backus. 

John Tracy of the second generation was born in 1673; of the third, 
in 1702; of the fourth, in 1726; of the fifth, in 1755; of the sixth, in 
1783. These six John Tracys were in the line of primogeniture, and all 
natives of Norwich except the first. Their partners in regolar succes- 
sion were Mary Winslow, Elizabeth Leffingwell, Margaret Hyde, Mar- 
garet Huntington, Esther Pride, and Susannah Hyde. The sixth in this 
line was the late John Tracy of Oxford, New York, who was born in that 
part of Norwich which is now Franklin, and was a man of acknowledged 
ability and integrity, devoting himself for many years to the service of the 
public as post-master, representative, judge, and for six years Lieutenant- 
Governor of New York. He died June 18, 1864. He leaves no son to 
continue the line. 

Dr. Elisha Tracy, a distinguished physician of Norwich of the Revo- 
lutionary era, was a son of Capt. Joseph Tracy, second son of John the 
proprietor. He was the father of the late Dr. Philemon Tracy, two of 

* It has been claimed that she was a daughter of John "Winslow and his wife, Mary 
Chilton of the Mayflower ; but this is a mistake. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 205 

whose sons, Phineas L. and Albert H,, have been representatives in 
Congress from New York. Capts. Jared and Frederick Tracy, in the 
mercantile line, who have descendants in various parts of the Union, from 
New York to Missouri, were of the same lineage. 

Uriah Tracy of Litchfield, born at Norwich, "West Farms, in 1755, and 
U. S. Senator from 1796 till his death, was a descendant of Winslow 
Tracy, the youngest son of the first John. He died at Washington, July 
19, 1807, and was the first person interred in the Congressional Cem- 
etery. 



XXXVI. Wade. 

The name of Robert Wade is found at Dorchester in 1G35 ; a person 
bearing the same name was admitted as a freeman at Hartford in 1G40 ; 
at a later period it is found among the inhabitants of Saybi'ook, and still 
later at Norwich. All these notices probably refer to one person. 

In August, 1657, Robert AVade was divorced from his wife by the Gen- 
eral Court at Hartford ; the act being recorded in the following terms : 

" Tills Court duely and seriously considering what evidence hath bene prsented to 
them by Robert Wade of Seabrooke in reference to his wiues vnworthy, sinfull, yea, 
unnaturall cariage towards him the said Robert, her husband, notwithstanding his con- 
stant and comendable care and indeauor to gaine fellowship w"^ her in the bond of mar- 
riage and that either where sliee is in England, or for her to liue w* him here in New 
England ; all w*^*" being slighted and rejected by her, disowning him and fellowship w"* 
hira in that solemne couenant of marriage betwene them and all this for neare fifteeno 
yeares : They doe hereby declare that Robert Wade is from this time free from Joane 
Wade his late wife and that former Couenant of marriage betwene them."* 

We assume that this was the Robert Wade that appeared a few years 
later among the proprietors of Norwich, with wife Susanna. 

His house-lot, between those of John and Thomas Post, was subse- 
quently transferred to Caleb Abell in exchange for a situation better 
adapted to farming. 

The inventory of Robert Wade was exhibited at the county court in 
June, 1682. He left a widow, son Robert, and three daughters, Susan- 
nah, Mary, and Elizabeth. 

Robert Wade the younger married in 1691, Abigail Royce, and is found 
shortly afterward among the planters at "<Ae Ponds" by which name a 
portion of Windham was originally known. He was made a freeman 
May 30, 1693. 

* Conn. Col. Roc, 1, 301. 



206 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 



XXXVII. Richard Wallis. 

This name is probably identical with Wallace. Richard Wallis, though 
ranked as an original proprietor, was not one of the earliest company that 
settled at Norwich. He was living at that time in the eastern division of 
S^ybrook, now Lyme, and sold his house with six acres of land to John 
Borden, but yet delayed from year to year to vacate the premises. In 
1670, Borden brought a suit against him before the county court, in order 
to obtain possession. The court ordered Wallis to deliver the premises 
to the purchaser, in good condition, within one month from the date of 
judgment. We assume, therefore, the year 1G70 as the date of his re- 
moval to Norwich. 

He died early in 1675, leaving a widow and two daughters, Abigail 
and Joanna. In the settlement of estate, the court gave the lands in 
Norwich to Abigail, and those in Lyme to Joanna. Simon Huntington 
and John Birchard were appointed overseers of the children and estate. 
The widow married the next year, Jacob Wackley. 



XXXVIIL Waterman. 

Thomas Waterman was nephew to the wife of John Bradford. Robert 
Waterman and Elizabeth Bourn of Marshfield were married Dec. 9, 
1638. Thomas, their second son, was born in 1644, and probably came 
to Noi'wich with his uncle Bradford. In November, 1668, he was joined 
in wedlock with Miriam, only daughter of Thomas Tracy. The Water- 
man house-lot was next to that of Major Mason, and the dwelling-house 
■was built at a slight turn of the town sti*eet, opposite the residence of the 
late Dr. Turner. It projected awkwardly into the highway, which now 
passes over a part of the site. The old well that stood by the house, is 
under the street. 

A granite stone records in rude capitals the decease of this proprietor. 



S E Rt 

THOMAS 

W A T ER M A N , 

DECdJVNE 1ST 

1708. Aged 64 y 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 207 

The inventory of Thomas "Waterman amounted to £855.11.4. He had 
ten oxen, ten cows, and abundant household goods, showing a condition of 
thrift, comfort, and independence. He left three sons and five daughters. 

Elizabeth, the oldest daughter, married John Fitch, one of the sons of 
the reverend minister of the town, and settled in Windham. 

Martha, the second daughter, went to Lyme, as the second wife of 
"Lyme's Captain, Reinold Marvin." 

Miriam died unmarried, Sept. 22, 17 GO, aged 82. 

L^'dia married Eleazer Burnham, a new inhabitant of the Nine-miles- 
square, that came in from Ipswich after 1700. 

Ann, the youngest daughter, became the partner of Josiah DeWolfe of 
Lyme. 

The sons of the proprietor were Thomas and John. 

Thomas, the first-b6rn of Norwich Watermang', not waiting to be quite 
twenty-one years of age, married, June 29, 1691, Elizabeth, daughter of 
Robert Allyn. Their union was prolonged to a term of sixty-four years, 
and the memorial stones at their graves show that they had both attained 
their 86th year, and died within a few months of each other in the year 
1755, They had seven sons and two daughters. 

Lieut. Elisha Waterman, their fifth son, died in Havana, a victim of the 
fatal expedition undertaken against the Spanish in 1762. He left a large 
family. 

_Asa Waterman, the sixth son, was the father of Arunah Waterman, 
who was born at Norwich in 1749, and after taking an active part in the 
various scenes of the Revolutionary war, both as a soldier and assistant 
commissary, emigrated with his family, about the year 1800, to Johnson, 
Vt., assisting greatly in the growth and prosperity of that town. At 
Johnson, Capt. Waterman lived to old age, adhering to ancient principles, 
simple manners, and.- old customs, grandfather to the whole village, and 
wealing to the lastf the long waistcoat, small clothes and shoe-buckles of a 
former generation. He died in 1838. 

Nehemiah Waterman, seventh son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Allyn,) 
was the first of the Bozrah line of Watermans. He died Oct. 27, 1796, 
in the 88th year of his age. His son Nehemiah was an officer of the 
Revolutionary army, and the representative of Bozrah for ten sessions, 
from 1787 to 1797. He died in 1802, aged 66. 

Rev. Elijah Waterman, distinguished as a successful teacher of the 
classics, and an able and fearless preacher, was a son of the second Nehe- 
miah Waterman, and born in Bozrah, Nov. 28, 1769. He graduated at 
Yale College in 1791, and was ten years pastor of the church at Wind- 
ham. He was afterward engaged in the ministry at Bridgeport, where he 
died Oct. 11, 1825, aged 56. He was a man of large information and an 
able writer. It is said that he had read the Paradise Lost several times 



208 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

through before he was nine years of age. He published sermons and 
treatises ; was fond of poetry, and often composed small poems on fugitive 
occasions.* 

John "Waterman, the second son of the proprietor Thomas, born in 
March, 1G72, married in 1701, Elizabeth, daughter of the second Samuel 
Lothrop. They had a family of six or seven sons and two daughters, the 
youngest of whom, Hannah, was the mother of Benedict Arnold. 

A branch of the Waterman family settled in Lebanon, N. H. Col. 
Thomas Waterman, born July 11, 1766, is said to have been the first 
white child born in that town. His parents, Silas and Silence Waterman, 
were from Norwich. 

* Sprague's Pulpit Annals, Vol. 2. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Second Class of Proprietors; reckoned among First-Comers. 

It is worthy of notice that for the first eighty years after the settlement;,, 
very few names occur among the town officers but those of the earhest 
class of settlers and their descendants. It shows how closely within their 
own charmed circle the proprietors kept the powers of government. The 
Abells, Brewsters, Bushnells, Elderkins and Lothrops were included in 
the circle, but beyond these the exceptions were rare. Thomas 8luman, 
one of the constables for 1680; Stephen Merrick 1681, and a townsman 
1685; Caleb Forbes, constable east of Shetucket, 1684, and Thomas 
Parke, Jr., 1685; .John J^lderkin, constable 1694; and after 1709, David 
Hartshorn and Nathaniel Rudd occasionally appointed townsmen for the 
West-farmers, are all the names that are registered for any important and 
useful office, outside of the original proprietary list, until the year 1721. 
In the choice of deputies the i-ange was restricted to the same circle, with- 
out any exception, (ill Jabez Perkins appears on the roll in 1720. After 
this period the old dynasty began to loosen its bolts, and the admixture of 
new names is more frequent. 



I. Abel, or Abell. 

Three of this name are found at an early period among the inhabitants 
of Norwich : Caleb, Benjamin, and Joshua. It is a natural supposition 
that they were brothers, and nothing is known that disproves the relation- 
ship. In all probability they came from Dedham. 

1. Caleb Abell married in July, 1669, Margaret, daughter of John 
Post. Tliey had eleven children. The wife died in 1700, and Mr. Abell 
married Mary, relict of Stephen Loomer. 

He was chosen constable in 1684; townsman in 1689, and often after- 
wards; appointed to keep tavern hi 1694; enrolled among the dignitaries 
with his military title, "Sargent Calib Abel," in 1702 ; died Aug. 7, 1731, 
leaving wife Mary, and nine children. 
14 



210 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Enough of the broken head-stone of his grave remains to show that he 
was in the 85th year of his age. • .;/ -'- , 

Of the six sons of Caleb and Margaret Abell, the first three on the list, 
Samuel, Caleb and John, married sisters, Elizabeth, Abigail and Rebecca 
Sluman, daughters of Thomas Sluman and Mary Bliss. 

Samuel, the oldest son, born in 1672, was a physician. In 1708, and 
again in a list of land-ownei*s in 1726, he appears with the prefix of his 
profession. We assign him to the third place in the list of Norwich phy- 
sicians whose names have been recovered. Though cotemporary with 
Dr. Caleb Bushnell, he was a few years senior in age. 

Theophilus, the fourth son, died on the last day of August, 1724, aged 
44. This was before his father's decease. He left a wife and two daugh- 
ters. His library seems to intimate that he was a religious teacher. It 
consisted of about thirty volumes, and among them were the following: 

A Bible with silver clasps. 

Wise's Church Quarrels. 

Doolittle on the Lord's Supper. 

Henry's Communicant's Companion. 

Robert Russell's Seven Sermons. 

Dr. Mather on Angels ; do. on Resignation to the Will of God. 

Memorial on Milk for Babes. 

Cotton Mather's Day of Rain. 

Stoddard on Saving Conversion. 

Dr. Mather's Now or Never. 

Bunyan's Forsaken Sinner. 

Do. Solomon's Temple Spiritualized. 

Wadsworth's Guide to the Doubting. 

Dr. Mather's Ecclesiastical Councils. 

Pierpont's False Hope. Henry Gearing. 

Burrough's Pi-eparation for Judgment. 

Stoddard's Guide to Christ. 

Flavel's Husbandry Spiritualized. 

Sundry old books. 

No single book, except the Bible, was valued over 2s. Gd. 

2. Benjamin Abell was in the settlement as early as 1670. His in- 
ventory was presented to the Prerogative Court in June, 1699, and the 
statement made that he left a son, Benjamin, and six daughters. 

3. Joshua Abell married, Nov. 1, 1677, Mehitable, daughter of Nehe- 
miah Smith. He was constable in 1682, and was frequently chosen 
townsman. He died March 17, 1724, in the 77tli year of his age. His 
estate was distributed the same yeai* to four daughters, £915 to each. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 211 

They were the wives of John Lothrop, John Leffingwell, Hugh Calkins, 
and Tliomas Lothrop. Two other daughters, the wives of Nathaniel 
Fitch and Obadiah Smith, Iiad received their portions. No son is men- 
tioned. 

It will not be inappropriate to advert here to a late worthy descendant 
of Caleb Abell of Norwich, who has left no posterity to perpetuate his 
line. General Elijah Abell, a gallant officer in the army that contended 
against England for liberty and independence, was born within the old 
municipal bounds of Norwich, but after the conclusion of the war settled 
in Fairtield, and for nearly twenty years served as sheriff of the county. 
In later life he returned to the old homestead in Bozrah, and there died, 
June 3, 1809, aged 71 . He was a graduate of Yale College, well-informed, 
energetic, and upright. 



11. Brewster. 

Jonathan Brewster was the oldest son of Elder William Brewster of 
the Mayflower Colony, but came over in the Fortune, 1621, a year later 
than his father. He settled at Duxbury, and represented that town in 
1639. With others of the Plymouth Colony, he engaged actively in the 
trade with the Indians of Long Island Sound and Connecticut River. 
Tliis trade was carried on in sloops and shallops. Some of the first set- 
tlers of Windsor appear to have been carried thither in Brewster's vessel. 
Jonathan and William Brewster were witnesses to a deed of land pur- 
chased by the Dorchester peo[)le of the Indians at Windsor, April 15, 
1636* 

These voyages brought Mr. Brewster into contact with the younger 
Winthrop, the founder of New London ; to which place he removed in 
1649, and found immediate employment, not only in the old path of Indian 
traffic, but as Fecorder or Clerk of the plantation, — many of the early 
deeds and grants at New London being in his hand-writing. 

16 May, 1650. 'This day were made Freemen of this jurisdiction, John Winthrop 
Esq. Mr. Jonathan Brewster," &c. 

Nine or ten years before the settlement of Norwicli, Mr. Brewster had 
established a trading-post near the mouth of Poquetannock creek. The 
point of land formed by the junction of the creek and river is still called 
Brewster's Neck. A large tract of land was here given by Uncas to Mr. 
Brewster, as a bonus to induce him to establish the post, and it was con- 
firmed to him by the townsmen of New London, within whose original 
bounds it was included.! 



* Stiles' Windsor, 1, 111. t Conn. Col. Kec, 1, 207. 



212 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

He commenced operations at Brewster's Neck in 1 650, without waiting 
to obtain a license from the authorities of Connecticut, who claimed the 
jurisdiction. The General Court, at their session in May of that year, 
censured him for the way of proceeding, but legalized the undertaking 
itself. 

" Whereas Mr. Jonathan Brewster hath set up a trading-house at Mohigen, this 
Courte declares that they cannott but judge the thinge very disorderly, nevertheless 
considering his condition, they are content hee should proceed therein for the present, 
and till they see cause to the contrary."* 

From this time forth, Brewster's Neck and Trading Cove on the oppo- 
site side of the river became the principal places of traffic with the Mo- 
hegans. Mr. Brewster maintained an agency here and kept his family at 
the post for several years, but at length relinquished the trade to his son 
Benjamin, and returned to Pequot Harbor, as New London was then 
called. In May, 1657, he was chosen "Assistant for the towne of 
Pequett."t 

(Autograph in 1659.) 



/^^hnn^i Sr^'W^r. 



His four daughters were all eligibly married in New London, and there 
he and his wife spent their last days. He died in 1661. Licidental cir- 
cumstanaes determine the year, but the precise date has not been ascer- 
tained. The MS. diary of Thomas Minor of Stonington mentions the 
burial of Mrs. Brewster, March 5, 1678, (N. S. 1679.) 

This worthy and honorable couple, Jonathan and Lucretia Brewster, 
belong to the venerated class of First-Comers of New England. 

Mr. Brewster brought with him to New London his son Benjamin and 
four daughters, leaving William, and possibly other children, in the Old 
Colony. Benjamin Brewster married Anna Dart in February, 1659, and 
succeeded his father at Brewster's Neck, where, after a life of usefulness 
and honor, he died Sept. 10, 1710, aged 77. The births of his seven 
children are recorded at Norwich. 

New London, as the bounds were stated in 1652, extended a quarter of 
a mile above Mr. Brewster's trading-house. In 1668, the line between 
New London and Norwich was reviewed and rectified, and it was still 
found to cross Brewster's Neck, dividing the Brewster farm between the 

* Conn. Col. Eec., 1, 209. The phrase, "considering his condition," refers to the; 
losses he had sustained in the Old Colony. 

I Ibid., I, 298. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 213 

two towns. The Legislature therefore left it to the option of Mr. Benja- 
min Brewster to which place he would be attached. The settlement at 
one place Avas four miles north of hira, and at the other eight miles south. 
He chose the nearer neighborhood. Accordingly in 1G69 we find him 
recorded as one of the twenty-five freemen of Norwich, and in 1685 he 
was one of its twelve patentees ; but a year later, when Preston was 
accepted as a plantation, his farm fell within the limits of that new town, 
and he was enrolled as one of its inhabitants. 

Thus it appears that Bi'ewster's Neck, which, as we have seen, was at 
first an advanced post into the wilderness, where the first house was 
erected by white men in the Mohegan or Pequot territory, north of New 
London, was long afloat in regard to its territorial possession, and settled 
with difficulty into a permanent position. Originally included in the ter- 
ritory conquered from the Pequots, yet claimed and given away by Uncas, 
accredited for about twenty years to New London, and then assigned by 
courtesy to Norwich, — afterward made a part of the town of Preston, but 
subsequently included in North CTVoton, — it is now undeniably, and has 
been since 1836, within the limits of Ledyai'd. It is seldom that the 
formation of new towns and the alteration of boundaries produces so many 
changes in a particular locality. 

The late Mr. Seabury Brewster of Norwich was not a descendant of 
Jonathan Brewster, but of some other branch of the Mayflower family. 
He emigrated to Norwich from the Old Colony during the Revolutionary 
war, when about twenty-two years of age. The following is the inscrip- 
tion upon his tomb-stone : 

"Seabury Brewster was bora at Kingston, Plymouth Co., Mass., 19 Oct., 1754, and 
died at Norwich, Conn., 27 July, 1847, aged 93. He was 6tli in descent from Elder 
William Brewster, one of the Pilgrims that came over in the Mayflower and landed at 
Plymouth in 1620. 

" This stone is erected by his three sons, William, Christopher, and Seabury." 



IIL BUSHNELL. 

The marriage of Richard Bushnell and Mary Marvin, Oct. 11, 1G48, 
is recorded at Hartford. Mary Marvin was a daughter of Matthew Mar- 
vin, afterward of Norwalk. Richard Bushnell's name also appears in 
1056, among the owners of home-lots in Norwalk, but he is not afterward 
found in the list of early settlers, and it is supposed that he became a 
resident of Saybrook, and there died about the year 1658. His relict 
appears in 166U, at Norwich, as the wife of Thomas Adgate. Her child- 
ren were brought with her to the new settlement, and their births are found 
registered with those of the Adgate family. 



214 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

"The names and ages of the children of Richard Bushnell deceased, who stand iu 
relation unto the second wife of Thomas Adgate as their mother, are as followeth : 
Joseph Bushnell was borne in May, Anno Dom 1651. 
Richard " " " " Sept. " " 1652.. 

Mary " " " " Jan'y " " 1654. 

Marcie " " " "March " " 1657. 

Mary Bushnell, the only daughter of this group that appears to have 
lived to maturity, married in September, 1672, Thomas Leffingwell, Jr. 
Joseph, the oldest son, married Mary Leffingwell of the same family, Nov. 
28, 1673. This couple had a family of eleven children — seven daughters 
and four sons ; but only two of the latter, Jonathan and Nathan, became 
heads of families, 

Mr. Joseph Bushnell lived to his 96th year, and his wife to her 92d. 
The life of their daughter, Mrs. Mary Leffingwell, was also extended 
beyond the age of 90. 

Richard Bushnell married in 1672, Elizabeth Adgate, the daughter of 
his step-father by his first wife. He had two sons, Caleb and Benajah, 
and two daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, who married the brothers Wil- 
liam and John Hyde, sons of Samuel the proprietor. 

In the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Richard Bushnell was one 
of the most noted and active men in Norwich. After arriving at man's 
estate, we find him taking a prominent part in almost every enterprise 
that was set on foot in the place. 

He performed successively, if not contemporaneously, the duties of 
townsman, constable, school-master, poet, deacon, sergeant, lieutenant and 
captain, town-agent, town-deputy, court-clerk, and justice of the peace. 

As a military man, it is probable that he had seen some actual service 
in scouting against the Indians, and was useful in exercising the train- 
bands. The first Mondays of May and September were days of general 
militia muster, or training-days, as they were usually called. These in 
Norwich, as elsewhere, were always days of festivity. No one was so 
poor as not to regale his family with training-cake and beer at those times. 
Jn 1708 a new start was taken in improving the appearance and exercise 
of the trainers. " Drums, holbarts, and a pair of colours," were purchased 
for them. 

As a clerk, Mr. Bushnell exhibited an improvement upon the old forms 
of writing and spelling ; and as a justice, he decided numerous cases of 
debt and trespass, both for Norwich and the neighboring towns. 

Caleb Bushnell, the son of Richard, born May 26, 1679, was nearly as 
conspicuous in the affairs of the town as his father. He was a physician, 
captain of the train-band, often employed in civil affairs, and a pros^ierous 
trader. He was also one of the first occupants and- improvers at the Land- 
ing, no one of his compeers going before him in activity and enterprise. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



215 



He left an estate of about £4000. The stone record gives bis age and 
deatb : 

" Here lyeth what was mortal of that worthy gentleman, Capt. Caleb Bushnell, son 
to Capt. Richard Bushnell Esq. who died Feb. IS, 1724, aged 46 years, 8 months and 
2.3 days." 

Richard Bushnell's will was written after the death of his son Caleb. 
In that instrument he states it to have always been his intention not to 
bequeath a double portion to his oldest son, (as was the custom of the 
country.) but to give his children equal portions of his property. To his 
son Benajah he leaves those relics or heir-looms which would probably 
have fallen to Caleb, had he survived, viz., his double-barreled gun, silver- 
hilted sword and belts, ivory-headed cane, and silver whistle. 



HERE LIES ye BODY 
OF CAPT. RICHARD 
BVSHNELL ESQVIRE 
WHO DIED AVGVST 

ye 27.. 1727. .& in ye 
75TH YEAR OF HIS AGE. 

AS YOU ARE 
SO WAS WE 
BUT AS WE ARE 
YOU SHALL BE. 



IV. Elderkin. 

Our acquaintance with John Elderkin begins at Lynn, in 1637, when 
he was about 21 years of age. From thence he may be traced to Boston, 
Dedham, Reading, Providence, New London, and at last to Norwich, 
which was probably his latest home and final resting-])lace. 

In a deposition taken in 1672, he gives his age, 56, and says that he 
became an inhabitant of New London the same year that Mr. Blinman 
and his company came there to dwell. We find a grant of house-lot 
recorded to him at that place in October, 1650, in anticipation of his 
coming. 

Elderkin was a house-carpenter and mill-wright, — crafts which in the 
circumstances of the country were better than a patent of nobility in 
gaining for him a welcome reception, esteem and influence. In the places 



216 HISTOEY OP NOEWICH. 

where he sojourned, he built mills, meeting-houses, probably also bridges, 
and the better sort of dwelling-houses. At New London he built the first 
meeting-house, constructed two or three saw-mills in the neighborhood, and 
occasionally tried his hand in building vessels. 

The settlement of Norwich opened a new field for his services. The 
proprietors at their first coming entered into a contract with him to erect 
a mill upon the Yantic for grinding corn, with the privilege of running 
the mill for a terra of years as a kind of monopoly of the business. This 
led to a change of residence, and in 1664 he uses the style, "I John El- 
derkin of Norwige, carpenter." 

In building the first meeting-house on the Plain, Elderkin does not 
appear to have had any concern. In constructing that temporary edifice 
the planters themselves were probably the architects and workmen. In 
1673, Elderkin was engaged to build a more imposing and durable struct- 
ure for a house of worship, in conjunction with Samuel Lothrop, by whom 
a certain part of the work was to be performed. This edifice was scarcely 
completed, when he entered into a similar contract with the people of 
New London. He seems in point of fact to have been occupied in run- 
ning a mill and building a meeting-house at each place, nearly at the same 
time. 

He died June 23, 1687, aged about 71. Of his first wife nothing is 
known. The birth of a daughter, Abigail, is recorded at Boston, Sept. 13> 
1641. Richard Hendy's wife was Hannah, daughter of John Elderkin' 
and it is probable that Daniel Comstock's wife, Paltiah, was another of 
the family, as he and Elderkin use the terms father and son in their trans- 
actions with each other as early as 1661. 

Elderkin married, in 1660 or before, Elizabeth, relict of William Gay- 
lord of Windsor.* Three sons and two daughters were the issue of this 
second marriage. 

(Fac-similo of his Signature in 1653.) 



^kn^ ^Jy-er^^^r^ , 



* In an account of Daniel Lane of New London against Elderkin in 1660, there is 
a charge of "4 yds. of lase for his mother, 6d. per yd." This must have been his 
wife's mother. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 21T 



V. Lathrop. 



Samuel Lathrop, ox- Lothrop, as the name was then generally spelled) 
(with the pronunciation Lotrop,) was a son of the Rev. John Lothrop, 
who had preached in London to the first Independent or Congregational 
Church organized in England, as successor to Mr. Jacob, under whose 
ministry the church was formed. The congregation was broken up by 
ecclesiastical rigor, and Mr. Lothrop suffered an imprisonment of two 
years duration, from which he was released only on condition of his leav- 
ing the country. He came to America in 1634, and was the first minister 
both of Scituate and of Barnstable. 

Samuel was his second son, and probably about fourteen years of age 
when the family emigrated. His marriage is recorded at Barnstable, in 
his fatlfer's hand-writing : "My sonn Samuel and Elizabeth Scudder mar- 
ryed att my house, Nov. 28, 1644." 

Samuel Lothrop was a house-carpenter, and found occupation for a time 
in Boston, from whence he went to New London, then called Pequot, in 
the summer of 1648.* Just twenty years later he removed to Norwich, 
where, after a residence of more than forty years, he died, Feb. 29, 1700. 

(Autograph.) 

His nuncupative will, made five days before his decease, was witnessed 
by Rev. John Woodward and Dea. Simon Huntington, and proved in the 
Prerogative Court the succeeding April. He had nine children. John, 
the oldest, was probably born in the Bay State ; the others in New Lon- 
don. They were all by his first wife, of whose death there is no record. 

His second wife, whom he married at Plymouth in 1690, was Abigail, 
daughter of .John Doane.f She survived him, and lived to the great age 
of 103 years. On her hundredth birth-day a large audience assembled at 
her house, and a sermon was preached by the pastor of the cluirch. At 
this time she retained in a great degree the intelligence and vivacity of 
her earlier years. 

* The following passage occurs in a letter from the elder Winthrop of Bostoa to his 
son at Pequot, Aug. 14, 1648 : 

" Your neighbor Lothrop came not near me, as I expected, to advise about it ; but 
went away without taking leave. Only enquiring after him I sent my letters to the 
house where he wrought the day before his departure." Sav. Win., 2, 355, App. 

t This was her first marriage ; she was about 60 years of age. 



218 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



INSCRIPTION UPON HER GRAVE-STONE. 




FOOT-STONE. 




HISTORY OF NORWICH. 219 

At the time of her decease, the descendants of her husband amounted 
to 3G5. 

John Lothrop, the oldest son of Samuel, married Ruth Royce. Ehza- 
beth, the oldest daughter of Samuel, was united at the same time to Isaac 
Royce. This double marriage was solemnized in the court room at New 
Loudon, Dec. 15, 1669, by Daniel Wetherell, Commissioner, the presiding 
officer of the court. It was not uncommon for the bench and bar to be 
thus enlivened with a weddiu"; duriu"; the interludes of business. 

Incidental testimony leads to the conclusion that Nathaniel Royce sub- 
sequently married Sarah, the second daughter of Samuel Lothrop, forming 
a third nuptial link in the two families. These young people all went to 
Wallingford, and were early settlers in that plantation. 

Samuel Lothrop had three other sons, Samuel, Israel, and Joseph. 

Samuel was joined in wedlock, Nov., 1675, to Hannah Adgate. Israel 
Lothrop and Rebecca Bliss, Joseph Lothrop and Macy Scudder, were 
married the same day, April 8, 1686. These three brothers settled in 
Norwich. 

The Lothrops, or Lathrops,* who look back to Norwich for their ances- 
try, like the Iluntiugtons and Ilydes, have become so numerous that a 
mere outline of the branches, if it were possible to follow them in their 
numerous emigrations and connections, would occupy many pages. The 
name will frequently occur in this history, and only a few prominent per- 
sons can be noticed here. 

Colonel Simon Lothrop, third son of Samuel 2d and Hannah (Adgate) 
Lothrop, born in 1689, was a man of more than ordinary local renown. 
He commanded one of the Connecticut regiments in the successful expe- 
ditions against Annapolis and Louisburg, and was valued for his judgment 
in council as well as for his gallant bearing in the field. At one period he 
was left for a considerable time in the chief command of the fortress at 
Cape Breton. 

Col. Lothrop was of a prudent, thrifty disposition, fond of adding land 
to land, and house to house. There was a doggerel song that the soldiers 
used to sing after their return from Capertoon, that alludes to this pro- 
pensity. 

* The name appears to have been usually, if not invariably, written Lothrop, until 
about 1760, when Dr. Daniel Lothrop, havini;: spent some time in En<,flan(l, and while 
there having made special inquiry concerning his ancestors, became convinced that the 
original name was Lathrop. He therefore altered the spelling of his own -name, and 
the change was gradually adopted by other branches of the family. The old pronun- 
ciation, Lotrop, held its ground much longer, and is still occasionally heard. 

In this work the old spelling is retained in connection with the early families that 
wrote the name Lothrop, as it seemed desirable to use the form that appeared in coeval 
records ; but in later generations the modern spelling is employed. 



220 HISTORY OP NOEWICH. 

Col. Lotrop he came on 

As bold as Alexander : 
He wa'n't afraid, nor yet ashamed, 

To be the .chief commander. 

Col. Lotrop was the man, 

His soldiers loved him dearly ; 
And with his sword and cannon great, 

He helped them late and early. 

Col. Lotrop, staunch and true. 

Was never known to baulk it ; 
And when he was engag'd in trade, 

He always tilled his pocket. 

Col. Lothrop died Jan. 25, 1775, aged 86. He was an upright man, 
zealous in religion, faithful in training up his family, and much respected 
and esteemed for his abilities and social virtues. His wife was a Sepa- 
ratist, and he carefully abstained from any interference with her predilec- 
tions, but was accustomed every Sunday to carry her in his chaise up to 
her meeting, half a mile beyond his own, — then return to his own place of 
worship, and after the service was over, go up town again after his wife. 

Col. Lothrop was the father of Simon and Elijah Lathrop, who were 
prominent inhabitants of the town, and for a long period proprietors of 
the mills at Norwich Falls. 

17 Feb., 1745. The house of Samuel Lothrop Esq. of Norwich was burnt at night, 
and almost all its contents destroyed. The loss estimated at £2000 Old Tenor. [Bos- 
ton paper.] 

Israel, the third son of the proprietor Samuel, was the father of seven 
sons and three daughters. William, the second of these seven sons, born 
in 1688, was one of the old worthies of the town-plot. He lived to the 
age of ninety years, and had ten children, all of them sons. The young- 
est but one of this train was the Rev. John Lathrop, a distinguished min- 
. ister of Boston, but born at Norwich, May 6, 1739. After completing his 
education at Princeton, he became for a time an assistant to Mr. Wheelock 
in his Indian school at Lebanon, but in 1768 was ordained to the pastoral 
charge of the old North Church in Boston. This phurch having been 
demolished by the British while they had possession of Boston, the society 
united with the new Brick Church, and Mr. Lathrop became the pastor 
of the United Society. He published a variety of sermons, and died in 
1816, aged seventy-five. 

Joseph Lothrop, the fourth and youngest son of the first Samuel, had a 
family of nine daughters, assisting largely in bringing the sexes in the 
Lothrop series to an even balance. He had also four sons, the yyungest 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 22l 

of whom, Solomon, died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving an only son, 
Joseph, who has become extensively known as Rev. Joseph Lathrop, D. D. 
of West Springfield, Mass. He was born at the Lothrop farm upon the 
west bank of the Shetucket, Oct. 20, 1721. His mother was Martha, 
daughter of Dea. Joseph Perkins. 

Dr. Lathrop was the pastor of one church sixty-three years, and for a 
long period was regarded as the patriarch of the Congregational churches 
of New England. As a preacher he was remarkable for the variety of 
his illustrations and his improvement of daily occurrences. A large 
proportion of his sermons, which have been published in seven volumes, 
are upon anniversaries and striking events. He died Dec. 31, 1820, aged 
eighty-nine years. 

Hon. Samuel Lathrop, M. C. from Mass. from 1818 to 1826, was one 
of his sons. 

The following is the oldest Lothrop inscription that is extant and legible 
in the Norwich grave-yard : 

"Here Lyes Buried ye Body of Mr. Israeli Lothrup ye Husband of Mrs. Rcbekah 
Lothi-up, who lived a life of exemplary piuty & left ye Earth for Heaven March ye 28, 
1733 ia ye 73d year of his age." 



CHAPTER XIIL 

Early Inhabitants. 

[Catalogue of inhabitants tliat came in after the first settlers, and 
appear as residents of the town-plot, or as grantees on the commons and 
outlands. The earliest date is given at which the name has been noticed, 
but in some instances the person may have been upon the ground for sev- 
eral previous years. This chapter is not designed to include those who 
settled east of the Shetucket, but the exact location of each new inhabitant 
can not always be ascertained. 

Adm. stands for admitted inhabitant by public vote.] 



AUe7i. Timothy Allen married Oct. 11, 1714, Rachel, daughter of Jo- 
seph Bushnell ; adm. 1715 ; removed subsequently to Windham. 



Allerton. Thomas Allerton had his cattle-mark registered in 1712. 

John Allerton was one of the selectmen in 1721. His wife was Eliza- 
beth, and he had nine children, the births ranging from 1713 to 1735. 
The name of Isaac appearing among them, suggests a connection with 
Isaac Allerton of Plymouth and New Haven,* but his antecedents have 
not been ascertained. 



Ames, Eames, Emms. Joseph Eames had a son Joseph, baptized April 
2, 1710. He died in 1734. Three sons are brought to view in the set- 
tlement of the estate : Joseph, Ebenezer, and Josiah. The relict, Mary, 
married Daniel Palmeter. 



Andreivs, Andrus, Andross. Jeremiah Andrews adm. May 7, 1714. 

John Andrews, Sen., adm. 1716. 

These were probably sons of Francis Andrews, who died at Faii^field 
in 1663, and in his will enumerated nine children, among whom were 
John and Jeremiah. 

* Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. 27, p. 248. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 223 

John Andrews, Jr., adm. 1716. 

John and Sarah, children of John Andross, Jr., were baptized July 5, 
1713. 

David and Benjamin Andross appear also as inhabitants about 1715. 



Armstrong. Jonathan Armstrong settled before 1670 at Misquamicut, 
(Westerly,) where he had a stormy experience of several years' continu- 
ance amid the riots, inroads, writs and judgments that disturbed the de- 
bateable lands on the bordei'S of the two colonies, Connecticut and Rhode 
Island. In partial redress of his grievances, the Legislature of Connect- 
icut granted him in October, 1677, one hundi'ed acres of land near the 
bounds of Norwich.* 

Nathaniel Armstrong was a grantee of the town in 1679, and Benjamin 
in 1682. 

Benjamin Armstrong died Jan. 10, 1717-18, leaving four sons, Benja- 
min, John, Joseph, and Stephen, all of age. Benjamin married Sarah 
Raymond, and in 1703 was one of the patentees of Mansfield. Stephen 
settled in Windham. Joseph was a householder in 1716, John married 
in 1710, Anne Worth, and had a numerous family. 

Lebbeus Armstrong, a descendant of John, removed about 1770 to 
Bennington, Vt. 



Arnold. John Arnold was a land-holder, both by grant and purchase, 
in 1683. He removed a few years later to Windham. 
Benedict Arnold took the freeman's oath in 1739. 



Averi/, Jonathan, adm. 1724. 



Baker. Joseph Baker, an inhabitant before 1690, was received with 
his wife into the West Farms church in 1721. 

Nathaniel Baker, a resident in 1718. Ebenezer, adm. 1724. 



Bacon, .John: adm. 1713; wife Hannah received into the church and 
four children baptized in 1718. 



Badger. Nathaniel Badger, adm. 1721, probably came from Newbury. 

Daniel Badger married Sarah Roath, Oct. 22, 1719. 

The births of three children, Daniel, Gideon, and David, are recorded 

in Norwich. 

« • — — — — ^ 

* Conn. Col. Kec, 2, 324. 



f' 



224 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Barrett, Ezekiel, 1711. Isaac, 1716. 



Barstow. Job, the son of John Barstow, born at Scituate, March 8, 
1679, adm. at Norwich in 1708. He and his wife Rebecca, who was the 
daughter of Joseph Bushnell, were baptized and received into the church 
Aug. 9, 1709. In 1725 he was one of the selectmen. He had three 
sons: Jonathan, born in 1712; Ebenezer, in 1720; and Yet-once, July 
17, 1722. 



Bates, William: cattle-mark registered 1678. 



Belden, Stephen: adm. 1720. 



Bell. Eobert Bell came from Ipswich about 1720. He appears to have 
been a physician, and had married at that place, Nov. 7, 1717, Abigail, 
relict of John Fillmore. He died Aug. 23, 1727, and his wife in Novem- 
ber of the same year. They left three children : Samuel, born in Ipswich, 
1719 ; Benjamin and Deliverance, natives of Norwich. 

[This Robert Bell may have been a son of Robert of Hartford, as the 
latter had a son Robert born in 1680.*] 



Blackmore, Samuel: one of the Separatist party in 1748. 



Boom, or Bourn, George: a resident in 1726, and had a son George, 
baptized March 8, 1729. 



Broken. Ebenezer Brown, son of Capt. John Brown of Swanzey, and 
grandson of Major Mason, married Sarah, daughter of the second Samuel 
Hyde, Feb. 25, 1714. They removed to Lebanon, where he died in 1755. 
His relict long survived him, and died in Windham, March 1, 1797, aged 
ninety-nine years and two months. 



Burton, Samuel: a resident in 1719. 



Burley, Jonathan : adm. 1727 ; mar. March 30, 1730, Elizabeth White. 



* Savage's Gen. Diet. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 225 

Capron, Walter : 1730. 



Carew. Thomas Carew married Sept. 10, 1724, Abigail, daughter of 
Daniel Ilmitington. Joseph Carew, brother of Thomas, married in 1731, 
Mary, daughter of the same, and died in 1747, leaving seven children ; 
estate, £2,847. . 

Palmer Carew was an inhabitant in 1730. 



Car2Jenfer, John: adm. 1723; probably son of William of Rehoboth. 
His wife, Sarah, was I'eceived into the church the same year. 



Carter, John: united with the church in 1722. 



Case. Moses Case, adm. Sept. 13, 1726. 
John, son of John Case, baptized in 1729. 



Cathcart, Eobert: an inhabitant in 1728. 



Chapman. Joseph Cliapman, probably son of William of New Lon- 
don, adm. 1715 ; died June 10, 1725. His wife, Marcy, died seven days 
previous. Eight cliildren ax'e recorded. Two of the sons, Moses and 
Daniel, are on the list of Separatists in 1748. 



Chappell, Caleb, son of George of New London, was resident in 1694, 
but removed to Windham. 



Cleveland. Isaac Cleveland, adm. 1709, was probably son of Moses of 
Woburn, who had a son Isaac, born May 11, 1669. Samuel and Josiah 
Cleveland, early settlers at Canterbury, appear to have been his brothers. 
In 1715, Elizabeth, wife of Clement Stratford, mariner, administered on 
the estate of her former husband, Isaac Cleveland. No mention is made 
of children. 



CooUdge, Samuel, a resident in 1694. 
15 



226 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Cole. "The inventory of Ambrose Cole of Norwich, deceased," was 
presented to the county court in 1690. Probably the family came from 
Scituate. 



Ootterel, Gershom : a resident in 1678. 



Crane. Jonathan Crane, probably from Killingworth, had land regis- 
tered in 1672, and mai-ried, Dec. 19, 1678, Deborah, daughter of Francis 
Griswold. He removed to "Windham, where he had a thousand acre 
right ; built the first mill in that plantation ; was one of the selectmen in 
1692, and a patentee of the town in 1703. 



Crocker. Samuel Crocker settled at West Farms about 1700, and was 
one of the selectmen in 1722. He was probably son of Thomas of New 
London, and born at that place in 1677. He had four children, Samuel, 
•John, Jabez, and Hannah, baptized in 1709. 



Cross. Peter Cross had land recorded in 1672, and was a resident in 
1698, but afterward removed to Windham. 
George Cross, a resident in 1719. 



Cullum, Benjamin : adm. 1715. Abigail, daughter of Benjamin and 
Abigail Cullum, baptized in 1718. 



Culver. The marriage of Edward and Sarah Culver is recorded Jan. 
15, 1681 ; the births of seven children follow. 

Edward Culver was on the board of Listers in 1685. In 1698 he 
removed to Lebanon, and was living there in 1716. 

John Culver and his wife Sarah united with the church at Norwich in 
1721. 



Cidverswell, Thomas, died Api-il 15, 1725. 



Dai'hy, Samuel, a resident in 1700. 



Davis. Ephraim Davis was on the roll of 1702. Thomas, Comfort 
and Joseph appear as inhabitants soon after 1712. Thomas had daughter 
Mercy baptized in 1711. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH, 227 

Daynes^ or Deans. Abraham Daynes of North Yarmouth mar. Dec. 
27, 1671, Sarah, daughter of WiUiam Peake. This marriage is recorded 
at New London, with the births of thi-ee children, Johanna, John, and 
Thomas. Three others are on record at Norwich, viz., Ebenezer, Sarah, 
and Ephraim. The sons are found among the inhabitants of tlie town in 
the next generation, but the name is more frequently written Deans. 
James and Oxenbridge Deans were young men in 1738. 



Dean. Nathaniel Dean, adni. Dec. 28, 1714; wife, Joanna, probably 
from Taunton. Seth Dean, 1739. 



Decker. Joseph Decker and wife Thankful were received into fellow- 
ship with the church in 1714, They removed to Windham. 



Denison, Capt. Robert, adm. 1718. His farm of 500 acres, conveyed 
to him by Owaneco, with the consent of the Legislature, in 1710, lay upon 
the border of Mashipaug or Gardner's lake, and was then supposed to faU 
within the Nine-miles-square. He began his inaprovements at this place 
in 1716, but when the bounds of the town were more accurately defined, 
the greater part of his farm, including his family residence, was found to 
lie within the limits of New London North Parish, and after 1720 his 
connection with Norwich ceased. 

Capt. Denisou died in 1737, and was interred in a cemetery prepared 
by himself on his farm, where a group of Denison graves, with granite 
curb-stones marked with initials and dates, still remain. 

His son, the second Capt. Robert Denison, was an officer in the French 
war, and removed to Nova Scotia. 



Dennis, John : a resident at the Landing in J 739. 



Dowd. The cattle-mark of Abraham Dowd was recorded in 1723. 
He was probably a son of John Dowd of Guilford, born in 1097. 



Edgecomhe,lL\\o\nvi^,hovn in New London, 1694, settled in Norwich 
before 1720, and there died Sept. 16, 1745. His first wife was Katherine 
Copp ; his second, Esther Post, who survived him but a few months. 
While on her way to New London, she was thrown from lier horse, 
severely wounded in the head, and carried to the house of Mr. "William 
Angel, where she lingered for a fortnight in great pain and distress. The 



228 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

'whole neighborhood was moved by her sufferings, and several physicians 
hastened to her relief. Dr. Goddard came from New London, with Dr. 
Morrison, an army surgeon, just returned from Cape Breton, Dr. Worden 
from Franklin, and Dr. Porter from Wethersfield ; but surgical skill was 
exerted in vain. She died May 20, 1746, aged forty, and was interred at 
New London. 

The sons of Thomas Edgecombe by his first wife were Thomas, John, 
Jonathan, and Samuel. 

Thomas died in Norwich, April 39, 1755. 

John was a soldier in the expedition against Cape Breton, and there died 
after the surrender in 1746, at the age of twenty. 

Jonathan, a seaman, was taken by a Spanish privateer, Aug. 3, 1752 ; 
carried first to Campeachy, and from thence to Old Spain, where he was 
kept confined for several months, but at length picked the lock of his 
prison, escaped and reached a French port in safety. Here he found an 
English vessel, on board of which he worked his passage to England, but 
had scarcely touched the Island, when he fell into the hands of a press- 
gang and was enrolled on board of a man-of war. After a year's service 
he contrived to escape, and through various other adventures, finally 
reached home, Nov. 30, 1754. He afterward settled in Vermont. 

Samuel, the fourth son, was Deacon Samuel F.dgecombe of Groton, Ct., 
who died Aug. 14, 1795, aged 65. 



Fairhanhs, Samuel : a resident in 1722. 



Fales. Samuel Fales, adm. 1708; received into communion with the 
church in 1711 ; died 1733. He was son of Mr. James Fales of Ded- 
ham, and son-in-law to John Elderkin. His inventory included a more 
than ordinary number of religious books. It is probable that he was 
theological student. 



Fargo. Moses Fargo came from New London about 1690, and in 1694 
obtained a grant of land "on the hill above the rock where his house stands." 
He was on the roll of 1702, and died about 1726. Name often wi-itten 
Firgo. 



Field. Verdict of a jury upon the body of Gregory Field: "Found 
dead in Shoutucket river in Norwicli, 29 April, 1710." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 229 

Fillmore. John, son of Jolin Fillmoi-e, was born at Ipswich, March 18,' 
1702. His father was a mariner, and died at sea about the year 1711. 
His mother's maiden name was Abigail Tilton. She married for her sec- 
ond husband, Robert Bell, and removed with him to Norwich West Farms, 
Her son, John Fillmore, returning from sea, was united Nov. 9, 1724, 
to Mary Spiller of I[)swi(^h, and on the 28th of the same month made a 
purchase of lands in Norwich, where he planted his hearth-stone and 
spent the remainder of his days. 

Some extraordinary.incidents are connected with his previous history. 
While out on a fishing voyage, he had been captux'ed by a noted pirate of 
the name of Phillips, and compelled to perform duty as the helmsman of 
the freebooting craft ; but after nine months of this odious service, he 
combined with several other prisoners that had been subsequently taken, 
and at a concerted signal, making a desperate attack upon their captors, 
they killed and threw overboard the captain and a number of his crew, 
disabled the rest, took possession of the vessel, and navigated her to Bos- 
ton, where they arrived May 3, 1724, and gave their prisoners up to 
justice. Three of them were executed in Boston, and three sent to Eng- 
. land, where they sufFei'ed at Execution Dock. The gun, sword, tobacco- 
box, buckles and rings of the captain of the corsair were awarded by the 
Court of Admiralty to young Fillmore, as spoils won by his valor and 
decision. A part of these articles are still preserved as relics by liis 
descendants.* 

He was subsequently known as Capt. John Fillmore of Norwich West 
Farms, — a man of probity, and a useful citizen, a member of the church, 
and captain of a military company. He was three times mari-ied, and his 
will mentions fourteen surviving children. He died Feb. 22, 1777, aged 
75 years. 

Nathaniel, one of the sons of his second wife, (Dorcas Day of Pomfret,) 
born in 1740, married Hepzibah Wood, and settled at Bennington, Vt., 
when that part of the country was new and unsubdued. He served as a 
soldier in the French war and in tlie war for independence, and died at 
Bennington in 1814. His son, Nathaniel 2d, born in 1771, married 
Phebe Millard of Bennington, and he and his brothers, following the 
example of their ancestors, I'emoved into the wilderness, and settled in 
Western New York, where they became farmers, and in the course of 
time, clerks, teachers, justices, and members of the Assembly. This Na- 
thaniel 2d was the fatlier of Millard Fillmore, thirteenth President of the 
United States, who was born in Cayuga Co., N. Y., Jan. 7, ISOCf 

* Sec Memoir by Ashbel Woodward, M. D., in Hist. & Gen. Keg., 11, 61. 

t President Fillmore, on account of the connection of his ancestry with Norwich, 
attended the Bi-centennial Celebration in 1859, and manifested a cordial interest in the 
proceedings. 



230 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The descendants of Capt. John FiUmore emigrated not only to Ver- 
mont, but to Nova Scotia and other provinces, and have been widely scat- 
tered ; yet representatives of the name and family were left in Norwich 
and Franklin, where the lineage is still to be found, comprising descend- 
ants of the brave Capt. John and also of his brother Ebeuezer, who mar- 
ried Thankful Carrier in 1733. 



Ford, John: adm. 1722; married May 2G, 1729, Ann HoUoway. 



Fowler. Jonathan Fowler married Aug. 3, 1687, Elizabeth Reynolds. 
The widow Fowler is incidentally mentioned in 1098. 
Thomas Fowler of Lebanon, died in 1707. 



Fox. Isaac Fox, adm. 1721 ; Thomas, 1722. 



Frasier. Colin Frasier married in 1718, Sarah, daughter of Paul 
Wentworth. In January, 1724, Mrs. Frasier was arrested on the charge 
of killing an Indian woman in a fit of insanity. On the 24th of February, 
while imprisoned at New London, the unhappy woman, in another access 
of her malady, to v>'hich she was constitutionally subject, plunged a knife 
into her own throat, but the wound did not prove fatal. She was tried in 
March, and fully acquitted on the ground of distraction. 



French, John French, Senior, of the "West Farms, adm. 1724; died 
April 20, 1730, leaving sons, Abner, John, Joseph, and Samuel. 

John French, Jr., [Major John French] married Aug. 21, 1729, Phebe, 
daughter of Thomas Hyde. 



Gaylord, Josiah, lG7o. He was probably son of AVilliam of Windsor, 
and step-son of John Elderkin. He is on the roll of 1702 ; his "house at 
Pock-nuck" is mentioned in 1720. He died in 1727. 



Gibbons, John, 1719. "Hambleton Gibions," connected with a disturb- 
ance in the meetino-house, 1723. 



GooUn. Edward Gookin, adm. Sept. 13, 1726. He had four children 
baptized at dates ranging from February, 1723, to March, 1730. He was 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 231 

probably son of Daniel Gookin of Sliei-born, whose wife was a daughter 
of Edmund Quincy, and who had a son Edmund, born IMarch 31, 1688. 

Edmund of Norwich had wife Sarah, and two sons, Samuel and Daniel. 
The former has not been traced, but Daniel, with his parents and their 
three daughters, who lived to be aged spinsters, all sleep together in the 
town burial-crround. 



Gould, Nathaniel, 1730. 



Gorton. Benjamin Gorton, from Warwick, R. I., on the 20th of Sep- 
tember, 1717, purchased the valuable farm of Peter Mason near the Great 
Pond, or Mashipaug Lake, 500 acres, with dwelling-house and other build- 
ings, for £500. This farm was then supposed to lie within the bounds of 
Norwich, and he was for several years considered an inhabitant. He died 
in 1737. 



Gove, Samuel and Nathaniel, adm. 1723. 



Green, Robert of Peagscomsuck, 1696. 



Grut. Thomas Grist married Ann Birchard, Aug. 14, 1721 ; adm. 
1726. 



Grover, Ebenezer, first mentioned about 1720. 



Hall. Thomas Hall, adm. 1701 ; probably came from Woburn. 
Thomas, Jr., adm. Dec. 21, 1712. 



Hamilton, Solomon, a resident in 1738. 



Hammond, Joseph, 1712. Caleb, married Nov. 21, 1723, Mary Brew- 
ster; adm. 1727. Elijah, adm. 1730. 

Isaac, of Norwich, bought a farm on Mohegan hill in 1734, for £660. 



Harrington. Isaac Harrington died 1727 ; left wife Sarah, and four 
child^-en, Isaac, Silvanus, James, and Patience. 



232 HIS^ORYOPNORWICH. 

Harris. John Harris, adm. Dec. 21, 1712, died 1728^ left wife Susan- 
nah; other legatees, "brother Robert and his son John of Brookline, in 
New England." 

Gibson, son of Samuel Harris of New London, born 1694, settled in 
1726 on a farm in New Concord, now Bozrah. His wife was Phebe, 
daughter of Capt. George Denison. He died in 1761. He was the 
father of Dr. Benjamin Harris of Preston. 



Hartshorn. David and Jonathan Hartshorn, brothers, from Reading, 
settled at the West Farms, and are on the roll of inhabitants in 1702. 

David was a physician ; selectman in 1709 ; built a saw-mill on Beaver 
brook in 1713 ; was one of the first deacons of the West Farms church; 
died Nov. 3, 1738, aged 81. He was a man of good report, and a valu- 
able citizen. His wife was Rebecca Batcheler. 

Jonathan Hartshorn, probably son of Jonathan above named, married 
in 1709, Lucy Hempsted of New London, and in 1726 removed with his 
family to Cecil county, Maryland. 



] Hashins, or Hosldns. Richard and John were early residents. Rich- 
ard died in 1718, leaving nine children; estate, £1,257. John died in 
1719, leaving seven children. 
Daniel, adm. Dec. 5, 1721, married Mehitable Badger. 



Hazen. Thomas Hazen, adm. Dec. 21, 1712. He and his wife were 
received to church membership by letter from the church in Bosford. 

John Hazen, adm. 1715. Joseph and Jacob also became residents near 
this time. 



Heath. John Heath came from Havei'hill. His wife, Hannah, was 
received into the church, and her son Josiah baptized, 1715. 



Hendrich, Isaac, a resident in 1721. 



Hill, Charles, a Separatist in 1748. 



Hodges, Ephraim, adm. 1729. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 233 

Hough, John, 1678; son of William Hougli of New London, and there 
bom Oct. 17, lG5o. He was a house-builder, and much employed both 
in Norwich and New London, acquiring lands and houses in each place. 
He died at New London, Aug. 2G, 1715, suddeialy deprived of life by a 
fall from the scaffolding of a house on which he was at work. He was a 
large man, of a military turn, and active also in civil affairs, extensively 
known and highly esteemed. The sudden stroke that swept him into 
eternity, resounded through the country with starthng emphasis. 

The wife of Capt. Hough was Sarah Post of Norwich. He had a farm 
in New Concord Society, the land being an original grant from the town 
in payment for building a school-house. His youngest son, Jabez, born in 
1702, inherited this form, and there died, Jan. 24, 1725, only seventeen 
days after his marriage Avith Anne Denison of New London. The farm 
was after this the homestead of his older brother John, and from him it 
went to his son Jabez, who married Pliebe Harris, who died at the age of 
92, July 23, 1820. 



jHutchins. John Hutchins, adm. Dec. 20, 1715 ; a constable in 1726 
and 1727. 

Thomas Hutchins, inn-keeper at Newent in 1733. 



Hutchinson, Joshua, adm. April 29, 1729. 



Jennings. Land granted to Jonathan Jennings in 1677. In 1684 he 
had other grants at Senemancutt and Sucksqutumscot. He removed to 
Windham, and there died June 27, 1733, in his 79th year. His son, 
Ebenezer, was the first male child of English parentage born in Wind- 
ham.* 



Jones, John, a resident in 1712 ; died 1749. 



Johnson. "Ten acres of land at Lebanon Valley," granted to John 
Johnson in 1677; also a grant at Westward hill. His cattle-mark was 
registered in 1683; he was a Lister in 1698. 

Isaac Johnson of Norwich died Jan. 7, 1708. 

Ensign AVilliam Johnson of Canterbury, who probably went from Nor- 
wich, died Feb. 23, 1713. 

Ebenezer Johnson of the West Farms, 1718, married Deborah Cham- 
pion. 

* Weaver's Ancient Windham. 



234 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Kelly, Joseph, a resident in 1716. 

Thomas, adm. 1719. Probably both came from Newbury, 



Kennedy, Robert, a resident in 1730; hud wife Mary. 



Kimhall, Richard, 1722. 



King, Edward, a resident in 1699 : adm. 1701 ; died before 1726. 



Kingsbury. Joseph, from Haverhill, Mass., with his sons, Joseph, Jr., 
and Nathaniel, adm. 1710. The wife of the elder Joseph was Love 
Ayres, and of the younger, Ruth Denison, both of Haverhill. The wife 
of Nathaniel has not been ascertained. He had son John, born in 1710, 
and Nathaniel in 1711. 

Joseph Kingsbury, Sen. was one of the first deacons of the West Farms 
church, chosen in 1718. Joseph, Jr. w^as one of the eight pillars, and 
their wives, Love and Ruth Kingsbury, were among the earliest members 
received. Dea. Joseph Kingsbury died in 1741. 

Joseph Kingsbury, Jr. was an ensign in 1721, selectman in 1723, cap- 
tain of a company in 1726, chosen deacon in 1736, and died Dec. 1, 1757, 
aged 75. He had 13 children. 

Mrs. Ruth Kingsbury, relict of the second Deacon Joseph, died May 6, 
1779, aged 93, leaving behind the remarkable number of 231 descendants, 
viz., 5 children, 61 of the next generation, 152 of the 4th, and 13 of the 
5th. The homestead farm is still in possession of descendants of the same 
name. 

Andrew Kingsbury, an officer of the- Revolution, and subsequently, 
from 1793 to 1818, State Treasurer of Connecticut, was a descendant of 
Joseph, Jr., in the line of his son Ephraim. 



Kirhy, Richard, adm. 1721. 



Knowles, Thomas, adm. 1710. 



Knowlton, Joseph, accidentally killed, 1718 ; "no estate but two cows." 
Mary, daughter of Thomas Knowlton, a member of the church in 
1709. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 235 

Ladd. In 1709, Samuel Ladd, from [laverliill, Suffolk Co., Mass., 
purchased land of David -Hartshorn '"on the hill beyond Thomas Hide's 
farm." Adm. 1710. 

Nathaniel Ladd was selectman in 1721, but in 1729 had removed from 
the town. 

David Ladd, another early settler at the West Farms, married Mary 
Waters. His family and that of Capt. Jacob Hyde were linked together 
by a triple marriage of their children. The three brothers, Samuel, 
Ezekicl and Joseph Ladd, married the three sisters, Hannah, Ruth and 
Silence Hyde, both parties in the natural order of seniority, and each of 
the sisters at the age of 19 years. 



Lamh. Ebenezer Lamb married May 6, 1G90, Mary Armstrong. 
David, Isaac and John Lamb were residents about 1718. John died 
Aug. IG, 1727. 



Lawrence, Isaac, owned the church covenant in 1700 ; was adm. 1702. 
Isaac Lawi'cnce, Jun,, had four children baptized at dates from 1711 to 
1718. 



Lee. Richard Lee, adm. 1705 ; died Aug. 7, 1713; left widow Sarah, 
and nine children : the oldest son Thomas 40 years of age, Richard 34 
Joseph 32, and Benjamin 30. 



Loonier, Samuel, of the pai'ish of New Concord, adm. Sept. 13, 1726. 



Lord. Cyprian, a younger brother of Rev. Benjamin Lord, settled in 
Norwich about 1720, and married in 1725, Elizabeth Backus. 



Imw. The only person of this name found on the records is David, 
adm. 1709; died Feb. 10, 1710, aged 23. His estate was settled by 
Thomas Leffingwell. The low semicircular head-stone that marks his 
grave is one of the oldest in the town-plot cemetery. 



Lyon, Ebenezer, 1722. 



Marshall. "Abial Marshall of Norwich and Abiah Hough of New 
London were married 18 Nov. 1708." Their oldest son, the second Abia 
Marshall, died in Bozrah, Dec. 1, 1799. 



236 HISTORY OP NORWICH 

3Ieach. John Meach is on a list of 1698.^ 



Metcalf. Ebenezer Metcalf, from Dedham, married in 1702, Hannah, 
daughter of Joshua Abel of the West Farms, and had five children bap- 
tized, extending to 1711. He was on the roll of inhabitants in 1718, but 
removed to Lebanon, and there died Nov. 5, 1755, aged 76. He Avas a 
descendant of Michael Metcalf, who had lived at Norwich in England, but 
emigrated to this country with his wife and nine children in 1637, and 
settled at Dedham. 



Merrick. Stephen Merrick married Mercy Bangs, Dec. 28, 1671, he 
being 25 and she 20 years of age. Mercy and Apphia Bangs were twin 
daughters of Edward Bangs of Plymouth colony, and were married the 
same day, — Apphia probably to John Knowles.* 

Stephen Merrick came to Norwich about 1672. He was a constable in 
1681, and appointed county marshal or sheriff in 1685. 



Moore. Grants of land were made to William Moore in 1677 and 
1682. He had land also at Potapaug and "over the river at a place 
called Major's Pond." He married the relict of Thomas Harwood in 
August, 1677, and about twenty yeai's later removed to Windham. 



Morgan. Two of this name are found early at Norwich, and left fam- 
ilies there, — William and Peter. William Avas probably tua of WiUiam 
and Margaret (Avery) Morgan of Groton, (born 1697.) 

Peter was a son of John Rose-Morgan of New London, born in 1712. 
His wife was Elizabeth Whitmore of Middletown, and his house stood 
mider the hill upon the site afterwards built upon by Rev. Joseph Strong, 
and now the residence of D. F. Gulliver, M. D. Peter Morgan removed 
to the Great Plain. 



Moseley, or Maudsley. The eai'hest notice of this name is found in the 
bajitismal record : 

"Increase and Sarah, children of Increase Maudsley, bap. 6:9: 1715," 
that is, Nov. 6, 1715. 

Increase Moseley, the father, died in 1731. 

Increase, the son, born May 18, 1712, married in 1735, Deborah Tracy 
of Windham, and removed about 1740 to Woodbury, settling in that part 

t Gen. Diet., article Bangs. Merrick is there erroneously printed Hcrrick, and the 
date of the marriage 1670 instead of 1671. 



HISTORY OF NORAVICH. 237 

of tlie town whieli is now Washington. He there sustained various offices 
of trust and honor, representing the town in the legislature for some fifteen 
successive years, but removed to Clarendon, Vt., in 1781, and there died 
May 2, 1795. 

His son, the third Increase Moseley in direct succession, probably born 
also in Norwich, settled in Southbury, and was a colonel of one of the 
Connecticut regiments during the Revolutionary Avar.* 

Rev. Peabody Moseley, son of the first Increase, was born at Norwich 
in 1724. He was a Baptist clergyman, but about the year 1780, joined 
the Shaker society of New Lebanon. 



Munsell, Elisha, 1720. Elisha, Jr., 1721. The latter was on the list 
of Separatists in 1748. 



iVbrm«H, James, adm. Dec. 20, 1715. He was captain of a vessel; 
kept also a shop of merchandize ; and in 1717 was licensed to keep a 
house of entertainment. He died June 28, 1743. 



Orws%, John, adm. Dec. 20,1715; died July 11, 1728. His relict, 
Susannah, died in 1752. 

Joseph, adm. 1720 ; wife Abigail united with the church in 1721. 



Palmeter, Daniel, adm. 1724. 



Pasmore. The inventory of Joseph Pasmore of Norwich was exhib- 
ited in 1711, comprising a Bible, psalm-book, sword, articles of apparel, 
and twelve acres of land. 



Pech, Benjamin, adm. 1700. The church record gives tlie names of 
eight children of "brother Benjamin Peck," that were baptized from 1703 
to 1718. He died in 1742. Joseph, his oldest son, born in 170G, was 
father of the late Capt. Bela Peck of Norwich. 

The ancestor of this family was Henry Peck of New Haven, whose 
twin sons, Joseph and Benjamin, were born Sept. 6, 1647. 

* Cothren's History of Woodbui-y. 



238 HISTOEY OP NORWICH. 

Pemher, John: adm. 1722; son of John and Agnes Pember of New- 
London. He married in 1716, Mary, daughter of Thomas Hyde, and 
settled at West Farms, where he died in 1783, aged 85. 



Pettis, Samuel, adm. 1727. 



Phillips, George, adm. 1726. 



Pierce, Jonathan and Ebenezer, adm. 1712. 



Pike. Elizabeth, wife of John Pike, baptized Aug. 5, 1711 ; son John 
baptized 1712, and other children onward to 1723. 



Pitcher. Samuel Pitcher, supposed to be a son of Andrew of Dor- 
chester, had son Benjamin baptized in Norwich, March 20, 1714. He 
was one of the selectmen in 1721, but in 1735 removed to Woodbury, Ct. 
A part of the family remained, and the name has been continued in the 
town to the present day. 



Polly. Matthew, 1719, probably from Woburn. 
Abigail, wife of Daniel Polly, died June 8, 1725. 



Prior, Joshua, a householder in 1733. 



Raymond. Samuel Eaymond of Norwich and Lydia Birchard of Leb- 
anon were united in mari'iage March 6, 1717. They had sons Samuel and 
Daniel, the former born Dec. 25, 1720. 



Richards, Nathaniel, an inhabitant in 1716. 
Andrew, adm. 1727. 



Roberts, Samuel, 1678, son of Hugh Roberts, an early settler in New 
London. He came to Norwich as a house-carpenter, in company with 
John Hough. These tw'o men were often associated in work, and called 
themselves near kinsmen, the mother of each being a daughter of Huo-h 
Calkins. The first school-house in Norwich, of wdiich we have any notice, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 239 

was built by John Hough and Samuel Robert?, and paid for in land in 
1683. They were the master-builders of many early houses in the town- 
plot, — the regular, substantial houses that followed the temporary habita- 
tioits of the first encampment. 

Samuel, son of Samuel Roberts, _ was born May 9, 1688. 



Bogers, Theophilus, 1720 ; a native of Lynn, Mass., and reputed to be 
a descendant of John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr. He had studied 
physic and surgery in Boston, and settled at Norwich in the practice of 
his profession. He died Sept 29, 1753. Two of his sons, Ezekiel and 
Theophilus, were physicians, and two others, Uriah and Col. Zabdiel, were 
conspicuous as active citizens and patriots of the Revolutionary period. 



Rood. Thomas Rood was an early settler vipon the outlands of the 
township. His wife, Sarah, died in March, 1668, and he in 1672. Nine 
children are recorded, the dates of birth ranging from 1649 to 1666, but 
the place of nativity is not given. 

Thomas, Micah, vSamuel and George Rood are on the roll of inhabit- 
ants in 1702. Micah obtained some local notoriety on account of a pe- 
culiar variety of apple that he brought to market, which was called from 
him the Mike apple, and has since been more extensively propagated. It 
is an early species, has a fair outside, an excellent flavor, and each indi- 
vidual apple exhibits somewhere in the pulp a red speck, like a tinge of 
fresh blood. Several fanciful legends have been contrived to account for 
this peculiarity. Micah Rood died in December, 1728, aged about 76. 



Rosehrough. In 1693, the proprietors granted to George Rosebrough, 
"three or four acres of land, where his house stands." No other reference 
to the name has been observed. 



Rudd. Jonathan and Natlianiel Rudd, brothers, came from Saybrook. 
The former settled east of the Shetncket, and the latter at the West Farms. 
It is probable that they were sons of that Jonathan Rudd who was married 
at Bride Brook in the winter of 1616-7. 

Nathaniel Rudd married, April 16, 1685, Mary, daughter of John Post. 
His homestead was in that part of the West Farms which is now Bozrah. 
He died in April, 1727, leaving an estate valued at £689. 

Daniel Rudd, one of the sons of Nathaniel, born in 1710, married for 
his second wife, (July 1, 174.5,) Mary Metcalf, a daughter of the Rev. 
Joseph Metcalf of Falmouth, Me. She had previously been living with 



240 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

her relatives in Lebanon, to whicli place she came from her far-off home, 
according to tradition, in a three-days' journey, riding on a pillion behind 
Capt. James Fitch. Her son, Daniel Rudd, Jr., born June 10, 1754, 
married Abigail Allen of Montville, who died Jan. 20, 1857, wanting only 
a few months of being 100 years of age. Lucy Rudd, one of the daugh- 
ters of this couple, married, first, Capt. Henry Caldwell of the U. S. 
Marines, and second, Major- General Henry Burbeck, an officer of the 
Revolutionary war and of that of 1812. General Burbeck died at New 
London, Oct. 2, 1848, aged 95. His relict, Mrs. Lucy Burbeck, is still 
living. It is a singular coincidence, occurring, it is presumed, very rarely 
in the history of families, that Mrs. Burbeck's father, Daniel Rudd, and 
her husband, Henry Burbeck, w^ere born on the same day, — June 10, 
1754. 



Sabin : often upon early records written Sabiens. Isaac, adm. 1720. 



/ Sluman. Thomas Sluman married, Dec, 1668, Sarah, daughter of 
Thomas Bliss; constable in 1680 ; died 1683, leaving a son Thomas and 
five daughters. His relict married Solomon Tracy. Thomas Sluman, 2d, 
was on the roll of 1702. 



Smallbent. Mark Smallbent died Dec. 26, 1696; left two young 
daughters: estate, £143. 



Spalding. Andrew, son of Philip Spalding, ,was baptized July 15, 
1722. 



Starr. Samuel, son of Jonathan of Groton, married Ann, daughter 
of Capt. Caleb Bushnell, in 1727, and settled in Norwich. 



Stichney, Amos, 1725. 



Stoddard, Thomas, a resident in the parish of New Concord, 1708 ; pres- 
ent at a church meeting in 1714. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH 



241 



Story. Samuel Story and wife were received into the cliureli in 1722. 
They came undoubtedly from Ipswich. The inventory of his estate, taken 
in 1726, has among its items, "a wood-lot in Ipswich." Pie left a numer- 
ous family: five sons who were living are noticed in his will, the children 
of Ephraim deceased, and six married daughters, viz., Elizabeth Hidden, 
Mary Andrews, Dorothy Day, Hannah Nolten, Anna Proctor, and Mar- 
gai'et Choate. 



Swetland. John, son of John S wetland, was baptized in 1708; another 
son, Joseph, in 1710. The fomily. in all probability, dwelt near the west- 
ern bounds of the town, within the present area of Salem. 



Tenny, Joseph, adm. 1723. 



Todd, Thomas, died Aug. 29, 1727. He owned one-third of a sloop 
called the Norwich. His relict, Martha, married a Lathrop. 



Thomas, Ebenezer, adm. 1727. He owned lands in Duxbury, and was 
probably sou of Jeremiah Thomas of Marshfield, born Nov. 1, 1703. Eb- 
enezer, Simeon, and Thomas L. Thomas, active men of business during 
the latter part of the century, were his sons. He died Oct. IG, 1774. 



Tuhhs. Mary, wife of Joseph Tubbs, received adult baptism in 1718. 



Walker, Jonathan, adm. 1722. 



Warren, Robert, a resident in 1713 ; selectman in 1721. 



Way, John, adm. 1722. 



Welsh, John, adm. 1705 ; died 1728 : estate, £333 ; inventory presented 
by his son John. 



Wliite, Daniel, adm. April 30, 1723. He married Elizabeth Ensworth, 
June 10, 1723, and died Sept. 9, 1727, leaving a wife and three small 
children. Estate, £407. 
16 



242 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Whitaker, Jonathan, 1710. He married, in 1718, Abigail Lambert. 



Wightman, Daniel, 1727. 



Williams, Joseph, adm. 1702; Charles, of Preston, 1687. 



Willoughhy, John, 1718. 

Joseph, adm. Dec. 5, 1721. He afterwards purchased a farm in the 
North Parish of New London. 



Wood, Thomas, a resident in 1716. 

Ebenezer, adm. Dec. 2, 1718; married Mary Rudd, March 12, 1718. 



Woodworth, Isaac, adm. 1705 ; died April 1, 1714, leaving wife Lydia, 
and nine children between the ages of 8 and 27. 
Moses, adm. 1719. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Settlers in Long Society, or East Norwich, afterwards included iw 

Preston. 

Some of the earliest grantees on the Shetueket river, below its junction 
with the Quinebaug, were Samuel Andrews, John Reynolds, Josiah Rock- 
well, and Robert Roath. These grants in some instances crossed the river 
and took in the land on both sides. Reynolds and Rockwell were at work 
upon their land on the eastern bank when attacked by the Indians in 1676; 
but it is not probable that any permanent habitations were reared on that 
side until after the conclusion of Philip's war. 

The Reynolds farm remained long in the possession of the family. A 
portion of it was sold to the Water Power Company in 1826 by persons 
to whom it had descended by regular inheritance. 

The district on the east side of the river comprised Long Society, or 
East Norwich ; but the grants made by the town were not wholly limited 
to this society. A considerable portion of Preston was held originally by 
the same tenure. Its earliest land-owners and inhabitants settled under 
the authority of Norwich and were admitted to the privileges of the town, 
included also in the same church bounds, as parishioners of Mr. Fitch. 

In all probability Greenfield Larrabee was the first settler in this region, 
— the first actual inhabitant of the town of Preston. Next to him we may 
reckon the sons of Norwich proprietors, — Thomas Tracy, Jun., Jonathan 
Tracy, Samuel Fitch, and Nathaniel Leffingwell, who were cultivating 
farms on that side of Shetucket river in 1680, or soon afterward. 

The lands east of the town line were claimed by Owaneco, and used by 
him and his clan for their roving, hunting, and planting grounds. 

The following entry is from the records of the General Court, at Hart- 
ford, May 10, 1679: 

" Whereas, Uncas his son hath damnified Tliomas Tracy, Jun., in his swine, and 
TJncas is willing to make him satisfaction for the same in land, this Court grants him 
liberty to receive of Uncas to the value of 100 acres of land for the said damage, if he 
see cause to grant it to him, provided it be not prejudicial to any plantation or former 
grant made by the Court. Lt. Thomas Tracy and Lt. Thomas Leffingwell are ap- 
pointed to lay out this grant to the said Thomas Tracy, Jun., according to this grant." 



244 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

Thomas Tracy's farm east of the Shetucket was not far from Owaneco's 
claim, and it is not unhkely that the swine were lawfully slain in defence 
of his corn-fields. But this was an easy way of settling disputes; the 
Indians set but little value upon their lands, and the settlers were willing 
to be slightly "damnified," for the sake of the indemnity. 

In 1699 the farmers east of the Shetucket petitioned the town tliat they 
might be relieved from the ministry rates in Norwich, and pay to Preston. 
This was not granted, as the people at West Farms and in the crotch of 
the rivers were similarly situated, and the privilege could not be consist- 
ently granted to all. 

Amos.*' Hugh Amos probably came from Boston, where a person of 
his name was living in 1G66. He was propounded for freemanship at 
Norwich in May, 1671, but an earlier notice of him is the following: 

Sept. 26, 1670. "A committee of three persons, John Bradford, Hugh Calkins and 
Thomas Leffingwell are to agree with Hugh Amos to keep the ferry over Showtuckett 
river." 

This was after the privilege of keeping the ferry had been granted to 
Samuel Starr, and forfeited by him. " Hugh Amos and his neighbor 
Rockwell" are mentioned in 1678 as living near the ferry. 

Amos died in 1707, leaving an estate valued at £410, consisting princi- 
pally of housing and 570 acres of land. His children then living were 
John, Mary, wife of Benjamin Howard, Samuel (of Stonington), and 
Ann. 

Samuel Amos in 1685 obtained a deed of land lying "between Shunk- 
hungannuck hill and Conaytuck brook," of the sachem Owaneco. A 
handsome sheet of water called Lake Amos, in the south-east part of 
Preston, near the line of Noi'th Stonington, probably obtained its name 
from him. 

Ayer. .John and Joseph Ayer, or Ayers, emigrants probably from Ips- 
wich, Mass., settled at Preston and North Stonington as farmers. 

Joseph Ayer's farm was within the bounds of Norwich, East Society, 
and he was admitted an inhabitant in 1704. His will, dated at Norwich, 
Sept. 6, 1736, but not proved till 1747, mentions four children — Joseph, 
Timothy, Sarah Hazen, and Abigail, wife of Dennis Manough. 

Benjamin. Joseph Benjamin settled in Preston about 1690, and is 
supposed to have come from Barnstable. The inventory of his estate was 

* The list given in this chapter of early settlers does not cover the whole of Preston. 
It includes only those who settled in East Society under the authority of Norwich, and 
others whose names have been found in connection with the town at an early date. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 245 

taken April 27, 1704. IIo left a widow Sarah, and children according to 
the inventory — "Joseph aged 30, John 22, Abigail, Jemima, Sarah, Mary 
and Marcy, all about 20." The appraisers of his estate were Thomas 
Stanton, Jonathan Tracy, and Samuel Lennerson, who were doubtless Lis 
neighbors." 

John Benjamin died Aug. 2, 17 IG. 

Belcher. William Belcher of Preston died Feb. 7, 1732. His will, 
dated Sept. 6, 1731, provides for wife IVIehitabel, son William, and brother 
Elijah ; also his mother and sister. His estate was valued at £2,298. 
Among his bequests was a wood-lot to his pastor, Mr. Hezekiah Lord. 

Billiiifis. William Billings is suj)posed to have been the oldest son of 
William Billings of Stonington, and born in that plantation about IGGo. 
In 1709 he is styled " Capt. William Billings of Preston." He had rights 
in the volunteer lands, probably derived from his father, who had fought 
against the Indians in Philip's war. He died in June, 1738.* He was 
the father of Rev. William Billings, who graduated at Yale in 1720, set- 
tled in the ministry at Windham, and died May 20, 1733, leaving an only 
son William, afterward known by the same style and title as his grand- 
father, viz., Capt. William Billings of Preston. This last-named Capt. 
William died Nov. 28, 1813, in the 88th year of his age, and was buried 
at Poquetannock. 

'Branch. Peter Branch, probably son of John of Scituatc, had liis cat- . 
tie-mark registered at Norwich about 1G80. He died in 1713, leaving 
nine children, of ages from twenty-eight years down to seven. In settling 
the estate, it was decided that a division could not be made without preju- 
dice to the children, and testimony to that effect was presented to the coui't, 
signed by the following persons, who were doubtless fr(;eholders in the dis- 
trict at that time : 

John Ames, Isaac Morgan, 

Daniel Brewster, Ezekiel Parke, 

Caleb Forbes, David Roodc, 

John Freeman, Nathaniel Tracy, 

Joseph Freeman, Thomas Traty. 
James Morgan, 

Broivn, Tristram, adm. June 21, 171 G; the birth of Samuel, son of 
Ti-isti-nni and Mary, recorded the same year. 

^^Trustram Brown and Aljigail Parke were married 28 Aug. 1722." 
This was probably a second marriage of the above. 

* Joshna Hempstead of New London, in his private Diary, says that Capt. Billings 
of Preston and Capt. Wm. Hyde of Norwicli were buried the same day, June 9, 1738. 
These were men of note in their respective towns. 



246 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Cady, Nicholas, owned a mill in Preston, and there died in 1725 ; sup- 
posed to have come from Killinglj. 
Isaac Cadj died in 1730. 

Crtry, Joseph, had land granted to him in 1 687, " near Capt. Standish's 
farm." 

Clarlc. John Clark, carpenter, adra. 1702 ; died 1709, leaving a wife, 
Mary, and children, John, Thomas, Mary, Phebe, Isaac, and James, — all, 
or most of them, of mature age. 

Isaac, adm. 1714; selectman 1723. 

James Clark of Norwich died 1719. 

Gooli, Richard. A deed of gift, dated July 21, 1G80, is recorded, from 
Greenfield Larrabee to Richard Cooke of Stonington, of thirty acres of 
land "over Showtuckett, where my now dwelling is, provided he removes 
and dwells upon it." Richard Cooke accepted the conditions, was after- 
ward admitted an inhabitant, and had other lands granted by the town. 
He died in 1G95. His son Obed, born Feb. 1, 1681, was the father of 
Capt. James Cook of Preston, who died June 9, 1778, in the 62d year of 
his age. 

Eliphal, one of the daughters of Capt. Cook, married Oliver "Wood- 
worth, and died Jan. 25, 1842, aged 92, making but four generations from 
the settlement. 

Corning. This name is found early in the East Society. Josiah and 
Nehemiah Corning were born, the former in 1703, and the latter in 1710. 
Both are interred in the Long Society burial-ground. 

Danforth, Thomas, a land-owner in 1730, perhaps earlier. 

Davison. Peter and Thomas Davison were early inhabitants of the 
East Society, or Preston. They probably came from Stonington. Peter 
died in 170G; Thomas in 1724; and a second Thomas in 1741. 

Downer, Jonathan, adm. 1716. 
Samuel, adm. 1721. 

Andrew, a resident in 1723. Dr. Joshua Downer of Preston, born Aug. 
6, 1735, was a son of Andrew. 

Doions. John Downs and Hannah Rockwell were married March 1, 
1693-4. Tliey had five children baptized by Mr. Woodward in 1707. 

Joshua Downs of Norwich and Mercy Raymond of New London were 
married Feb. 12, 1729-30. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 



247 



Fitch. Mr. Samuel Fitch, son of tbe Rev. James, was one of the ear- 
host inhabitants east of the Shetucket. He died in 1725. His sons were 
Hezekiah, Jabez, and Benjamin. Tlie following inscription is from one of 
the oldest grave-stones in Long Society : 



IhERE LAIS THE 
I BODY OF DEACON 
BENJAMIN FITCH 
DIED OCT'R 19 

1727 IN ye 37TH 
YEAR OF HIS AGE. 



. 



Forbes. Caleb Forbes had a land grant in 1G72, and was constable on 
the east side in 1685. His marriage with Sarah, daughter of John Gager, 
took place June 30, 1681. A deed from Owaneco, in his favor, of 110 
acres of upland and meadow " south of Connoughtug brook," bears the 
date of Dec. 10, 1683. 

Deacon Caleb Forbes of Preston died Aug. 25, 1710. His estate was 
estimated at £625. He left a relict, Mary, and five children, Sarah, Caleb, 
Mary, John, and Elizabeth. 

Francis, David, adm. 1697." He was on the roll of inhabitants in 1702, 
and again in 1718, Vvith the title of Sergeant. 

Freeman, Joseph, of Preston, 1698. 

Sergeant Joseph Freeman's inventory was presented at the county court 
in 1706, and distribution of his estate ordered to his three sons, John, 
Ebenezer, and James. 

Gates, Stephen, an inhabitant of Preston in 1720. 
Thomas Gates died Oct. 24, 1726. 

Geer. The farm of George Geer was near the dividing line between 
New London and Norwich, east of the river, and was afterward included 
in Groton. He married in 1659, Sarah, daughter of John Allyn, His 
sons, Joseph and Jonathan, were reckoned as inhabitants of Preston in 

1687. 



Giddings, Nathaniel, son of Natlianiel, born 1705; daughter Elizabeth 
baptized Sept. 19, 1715. 



248 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Glover. John Glover, a grantee of 1680, is on the roll of inhabitants 

in 1702 and 1718. He married May 29, 1682, Hannah , the fam- 

ily name not given. 

Marcli, 1684. "Granted to Mr. Brewster and John Glover, two bits of land, near 
their own land, on the east side of Showtucket river." 

Haskell, Dyer, adm. Dec. 1, 1713. 

Roger, adm. 1716; Daniel, 1723. 

Roger and Daniel Haskell were brothers. The former died in 1727. 
The decease of Daniel and two sisters, Judith and Sarah, took place dur- 
ing the year 1730. Daniel left an estate of £850. In the last will and 
testament of Judith, several of the bequests are suggestive of the fashions 
of the day. " I give to brother Roger's daughter Zipporah, my Bible, my 
silk apron and pinner.^, and two ril)bons. I give to brother Fitch's daugh- 
ter Abigail my chince frock and stays with green covering," &e. 

A second Roger Haskell, who died in 1759, aged 67, and a third of the 
same name in 1791, have stones to their memory in the Long Society 
burial-ground. 

HewiL John He wit, member of Norwich church in 1726, had a son 
Solomon baptized March 30, 1729. 

Hillard, Joseph, 1738. 

Larrahee, Greenfield, from Saybrook, son of an original emigrant of the 
same name, married Alice, daughter of Thomas Parke, in March, 1673, 
and settled upon a farm east of the river, near his father-in-law. In this 
new location he prospered, acquired large lands, brought up a family of 
eight sons and daughters, and lived to be upwards of 90 years of age. 
He was born April 20, 1648, and died Feb. 3, 1739. 

Mainer, Zachariah, 1722. 

Mix, or Meehs. Thomas Meeks, son of Thomas of Ncav Haven, and 
there born in 1635, married June 30, 1677, Hannah, daughter of Rev. 
James Fitch. He settled upon a farm belonging to Mr. Fitch, east of the 
Shetucket. A tract of twenty acres, " where his house stands," was con- 
firmed to him July 16, 1680, as a free gift from Mr. Fitch to his daughter. 
They had nine children. 

Mr. Mix died July 30, 1706. His son Daniel was a selectman in 1725 
and 1726. 

Morgan, Joseph, of Preston, son of James of New London and Groton, 
married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Parke, "sometime in April, 1670," 
says the record. He died April 5, 1704. He had one son, Joseph, and 
six daughters, who lived to maturity. Estate, £522. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 249 

Parish, Samuel, a/lm. 171 fi; licnjamin, a little later: probably sons of 
Jobn of Stonington, who died in 1715. 

Parhe^ or Paries. The farm of Thomas Parke was so ambiguously sit- 
uated that it took a course of years to get it settled into an abiding position. 
In 1681 he was a collector of taxes for New London, and his son, Thomas 
Parke, Jr., a constable of the same town. In 1G86, the latter, without 
any removal of residence, was chosen constable for Norwich. A year later 
they were both included in the new town of Preston. Deacon Thomas 
Parke died July 30, 1709 ; his son, Tliomas Jr., had previously deceased. 

Robert Parke, second son of Deacon Thomas, married Rachel Leffing- 
well, Nov. 24, 1681. He also died before his father, (1707,) leaving a 
second wife, Mary, and ten children between the ages of nine months and 
twenty-three years. Robert Parke's homestead ftxrm was within the 
bounds of Groton ; he had also a farm at Pachaug. 

Capt, John Parke of Preston, another son of Deacon Thomas, and prob- 
ably the oldest, died in 1716. In the division of the estate, the widow 
Mary received that part of the farm "on which old deacon Thomas dwelt 
by the Great Pond." She afterward married Salmon Treat. 

Nathaniel Parks in 1683, was a neighbor of Josiah Rockwell. 

Richards. In 1713, Deacon John Richards of Preston asked for a 
confirmation of his land. William Richards, probably a brother of John, 
was also an early inhabitant of Preston. No connection between them 
and the Richards family of New London has been traced. William died 
in 1724 ; John in 1756. Both left descendants. 

Roath. Robert Roath married in October, 1668, Sarah Saxton, and in 
1672 was living at Norwich, near tlie Shetueket ferry. In 1680 the road 
to Poquetannock was laid out, beginning at the house of Robert Roath, 
and running south through land of Owen Williams. Robert Roath had 
three sons, John, Daniel, and Pet(ir, who all became heads of families. 

RoUnson. Peter Robinson came from Martlia's Vineyard about 1 708 ; 
adm. 1712 ; had three children baptized by Mr. Woodward, (1711, 1713, 
1714,) all daughters; removed to Windham, probably about 1720, and 
was one who assisted in forming the church in Scotland parish, 1735. 

Israel Robinson was a resident of Norwich in 1720. 

Rochioell. Josiah Rockwell settled at Norwich about 1670, and was 
slain by the Indians in January, 1676. His farm was on the eastern side 
of the Shetueket, near the road to Poquetannock. 

The parentage of Josiah Rockwell has not been determined by actual 
records, but presumptive evidence connects him with the family of William 



250 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Rockwell who died at Windsor in 1640. Though only three sons of Wil- 
liam are found on record at Windsor, viz., John, Samuel, and Joseph, it is 
not improbable that Josiah was an older son by a previous marriage. He 
was at New London in 1G58, and remained there ten or twelve years. 
He then removed to Norwich, where one of William Rockwell's family — 
Ruth, wdfe of Christopher Huntington — had settled. Among his children 
we find the names of the three brothers of Windsor, Joseph, John, and 
Samuel, perpetuated ; and in the family of Samuel, at Windsoi', we find a 
Josiah. These are hints suggestive of a relationship. 

Josiah Rockwell had seven children, the births ranging from 1658 to 
1676, inclusive. The oldest died in infancy. His marriage is not I'e- 
corded, and the name of his wife has not been traced. 

Rood. John, son of Thomas and Sarah Rood of Norwich, had a home- 
lot granted him in 1679, "on the other side of Showtucket river, near to 
his uncle Leffingwell's." He died in September, 1706, leaving a wife, 
Mary, and six children, — the oldest, John, aged 16, and the second, Zach- 
ariah, aged 14. The last mentioned was probably the venerable centena- 
rian whose grave-stone in the Preston burial-ground has the following 
interesting record : 

In Memory of 

Mr. Zachariah Kude 

■who died Feb. 10th 

1795. 

in the 103d year 

of his age. 

Here in the history of my age, 

Men who review my days, 
May read God's love in every page. 

In every line his praise. 

Rose. Thomas Rose was an early settler in the southern part of Pres- 
ton. His name acquired notoriety from the situation of his dwelling-house. 
A large oak-tree near the house was a noted boundary-mark between Nor- 
wich and New London, standing as a stately warder precisely at the south- 
east corner of Norwi«h. It was directly upon the line running east from 
the head of Poquetannock Cove to the bounds of Stonington, and is 
referred to in several surveys, acts, and patents. 

Thomas Rose married Hannah, daughter of Robert Allyn. Under the 
shadow of the great boundary-tree they both lived to a good old age. He 
died in 1743, leaving an estate valued at £2,498. His wife survived him^ 
and he left also a son Joseph, and six daughters. Another son, Thomas, 
died before his father, in 1733, leaving a family. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 251 

liudd. Jonathan and Mercy Rudd were married Dec. 19, 1G7S, and 
probably settled in Norwich about that time. His land east of the She- 
tucket was held by a deed of purchase from Owaneco, dated Dec. 10, 
1683, and consisted of 100 acres on Connoughtug brook, and 108 acres 
betwixt Shunkhungaiuiock hill and Norwich bounds. He api>ears also to 
have had other lands. 

He died in 1689, In the distribution of his estate, his wife received 
£60; the oldest son, Jonathan, £117 ; Nathaniel and Abigail, each £58, 
10s. "At the desire of the widow, Joseph and Richard Bushnell, Na- 
thaniel Rudd, Thomas Tracy and Caleb Forbes were appointed overseers 
of the widow, children and estate." 

SjDi'cer. The first Peter Spicer was of New London in 1666, and died 
in 1695. The second Peter was of Norwich in 1702 and 1716. Samuel, 
adm. Dec. 20, 1715. 

Standish. Josiah (or Josias) Standish was a son of the renowned 
Miles Standish of Duxbury. His first wife, Mary, "dyed and was buried 
at Duxborough July 1, 1665."* His second wife is supposed to have 
been Sarah, daughter of Samuel Allen of Braintree.f The earliest notice 
we obtain of him in this neighborhood is from a deed of sale dated Feb. 
5, 1686, from "John Parks of the new plantation, east of Norwich," 
(Preston,) to "Capt. Josiah Standish now in Norwich," of 150 acres of 
land "over Showtucket river upon the hill between Mr. Fitch's farm and 
Pocketannuck," — consideration, £22. Witnesses, Thomas Bradford and 
Simon Huntington, Jr. The same year he purchased a thousand-acre 
right in Windliam, near where Willimantic now stands. 

Capt. Standish died in 1690. The widow and son Miles were appointed 
administrators on his estate. We may assume that Samuel Standish, 
licensed to tan leather in Preston, 1706, Israel Standish of Preston, 1709, 
Josiah, who went from Preston, and was one of the first settlers of Staf- 
ford, 1719, and Lois, who married Hugh Calkins in 1706, were children 
of Capt. Josiah. 

Miles Standish of Preston died in 1728; left relict Elizabeth; estate 
appraised at £919.11.3. 

In his inventory arc articles that harmonize well with his name, — viz., 
gun, sword, belt, pouch, and bullets ; a Bible and Confession of Faith. 

Starkweather. John Starkweather was an early inhabitant. He died 
Aug. 21, 1703, leaving a widow and seven children between the ages of 
12 and 26 years. 

* Hist, and Gen. Reg., 8, 192. 
t Ibid., 10, 225. 



252 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Tyler. Hopestill Tyler, "an aged man, died in 1733. He left a wife, 
Mary, and four children, viz., Hannah Buswell, Daniel, James, and Hope- 
still. Estate, £813. In the inventory of his wardrobe is "a close bodied 
coat," valued at £4, 5s., a beaver hat, an orange-colored cloak, and a muff. 

Wedge, Thomas. Deborah, relict of Thomas Wedge, died in 1703, 
leaving seven children, viz., John, Mary, Joshua, Isaac, Deborah, David, 
and Deliverance. John Richards and .John Tracy witnessed her will. 
Joshua Avas on the roll of Norwich inhabitants in 1716. 

Wentworth. Paul Wentworth, a son of Elder William Wentworth of 
Dover, N. H., obtained from Owaneco, the Indian sachem, a lease of cer- 
tain lands in Mohegan, to which he removed with his family. He was 
dismissed, with his wife Katherine, from the church at Eowley, where he 
had lived, to the church at New London, June 29, 1707. But his name 
does not appear on the list of church-members at New London. His 
fai-m, though within the limits of the ecclesiastical parish, was at least ten 
miles from the church, and the intervening country was almost a wilder- 
ness. He afterward purchased lands of David Francis, in East Society, 
Norwich ; removed thither and was accepted as an inhabitant of the town 
Dec. 20, 1715. He had thirteen children, all born before he came to this 
colony, the dates ranging from 1G80 to 1700. He died in l7o0. 

Benjamin, his seventh son, married in 1726, Mehitable Carrier. Jared 
Wentworth, son of Benjamin and Mehitable, born in 1728, married Abi- 
gail AVilson of Ashford. The residence of this couple Avas in the western 
part of Norwich, near Bean Hill. One of their daughters, Zerviah, born 
April 12, 1767, was united Nov. 28, 1790, to Ezekiel Huntley. The only 
child of this union, Mrs. L. II. Sigourney, has acquired a literary fame 
second to that of no female in the country. Her numerous writings, in 
prose and verse, are all of a pure and elevated tone, calculated to charm, 
console and entertain all willing readers, and particularly to mould and 
invigorate the character of the young. 

Williams. Several of this name settled at an early date east of the 
river. 

Owen Williams is mentioned in 1669. He obtained a grant of land in 
1070, "near Brewster's in the path that goes from Showtuck to Pocketan- 
nuck." He died in 1680, leaving a family. 

Joseph Williams, adm. 1702, and a vote passed that he be "entered as 
a whole share man respecting lands." 

John Williams, apparently an original emigrant, not connected with 
others of the name in this neighborhood, appears early in the next century 
amono- the inhabitants. According to family traditions, he came from 




'CL/^. 



a. 




/ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 253 

"Wales, and was born in 1G80. His first wife was Hannah Knowlton.* 
His residence was at Poquetannock village, but within the bounds of Nor- 
wich, as is evident from his serving repeatedly as one of the selectmen of 
the town, in 1721, 1728, and afterward. He died early in the year 1742, 
leaving a widow Mary. His will provides for his only son Joseph, and 
sons-in-law, Nathaniel Giddings and James Geer. His estate comprised 
the homestead farm, a grist-mill, fulling-mill, a wharf and two warehouses 
at the Landing. Among his personal effects were five negroes, valued at 
£600. Total estate, £21,727. 

The following is a cotemporary notice of his death, Jan. 12, 1741-2 : 

" Capt. John Williams died at Pockatonnock of pleurisy after 7 days illness. He 
was a good commonwealth's man, traded much by sea and land with good success for 
many years, and acquired wholly by his own industry a great estate. lie was a very 
just dealer aged about 60 years. "t 

Brig. Gen. Joseph Williams of Norwich, one of the purchasers of the 
Connecticut Reserve, was a grandson of Capt. John. He died Oct. 3, 
1800, aged 47. 

Witter, Ebenezer, of Preston ; died Jan. 31, 1711-12. He left a v/ife, 
Dorothy, and seven children, Joseph, Ebenezer, William, Elizabeth, Mary, 
Dorothy, Hannah. Estate, £729. 

Woodward, Daniel, of Preston, died in 1713; left wife Elizabeth, and 
twelve children from eleven to thirty -three years of age. Daniel Wood- 
ward, Jr., administered on the estate. 



In 1718 the proprietors of Norwich east of the Shetucket were enume- 
rated. The list includes only property-holders, who were voters and paid 
rates to the ministry. 

' Benjamin Brewster. John Larrabee. 

• Jonathan Brewster. Daniel Leftingwell, 

John Clark. , Nathaniel Leffingwell. 

Obed Cook. Daniel IMix. 

John Downs. • James Mix. 

Mr. Samuel Fitch. Daniel Koath. 

David Francis. John Rockwell. 

John Glover. Joseph Rockwell. 

Matthew Huntington. Josiah Rockwell. 

Andrew Huntington. Samuel Rockwell. 

Greenfield Larrabee. John Williams. 

Nathaniel Larrabee. Joseph Williams. 

* History of the Williams Family, p. 322. 
t MS. Diary of Joshua Hempstead. 



254 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

To these were added : 

Mr. Worthington if he settle there. 

Isaac Huntington in right of Matthew Coy. 

And three half-share men, Hezekiah, Benjamin and Jabez Fitch. 



Preston, as an independent town, begins with the beginning of the 
year 1687. The petition of the inhabitants to the Legislature for in- 
corporation was in October, 1686, and signed by Thomas Parke, Sen., 
Thomas Parke Jun., Thomas and Jonathan Tracy, Hugh Amos, Jona- 
than Rudd, Caleb Forbes, John Amos, John Rude, Peter Branch, Jo- 
seph Morgan, Thomas Rose, Daniel BrcAvster, Nathaniel and John 
Parke, Charles Williams, Jonathan Gere, Edward Litell, and James 
Smith, — 19 persons.* 

At a special Court the next January, the petition was granted and the 
bounds stated. Its limits extended over what is now the southern part of 
Griswold, but the claim of Norwich east of the river was respected, and 
no part of Long Society included in the new town. 

The Plantation Act is recorded at Preston, signed by Robert Treat, 
Governor, and dated Jan. 15, 1686.t In this instrument fifteen persons 
are named, comprising the largest landholders, but several of them were 
not actual inhabitants. 

Hugh Amos. Thomas Parke. 

John Avery. John Plumbe. 

Tliomas Avery. Thomas Hose. 

Benjamin Brewster. Jonathan Rudd. 

Caleb Forbes. John Stanton. 

Capt. Samuel Mason. Jonathan Tracy. 

Ephraim Miner. Thomas Tracy. 
John Parke. 

The whole number of those who were embodied in the plantation, and 
agreed to assist in supporting a minister, was 31. Jonathan Tracy was 
the first Recorder. 

A quit-claim and confirmatory deed was obtained March 17, 1687, 
from the Mohegan sachem, of the new township, comprising a tract five 

* Conn. Col. Rec, 3, 220. 

t There is probably an error of a few days in this date. The Special Court met to 
confirm the grant and state the bounds, Jan. 26. 
See Conn. Col. Rec, 3, 222. 

• I 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 255 

miles in length between vStonington and Norwich. It purports to be 
from 

"Oaneco to Capt. James Fitch, Capt. Josiah Standish, Thomas Pai'ke, 
Sen., Jonathan Trasy, Thomas Trasy, Joseph Morgan, and all the rest of 
the inhabitants living in New Preson." 

Signed. 




Witnesses : 

John Morgan. 
John Stanton. 
The mark c.^o of John Uncas. 



The following instrument, signed by Owaneco, is dated Dec. 22, 1680: 

Whereas at a General Court in Hartford May 13, 1680, my father Uncas had liberty 
to dispose unto me his land upon Quinnabaug river and the Court at the same time 
granting rae liberty to dispose of it unto gentlemen among them, as I should see cause 
to do, and a good part thereof I have disposed of already, but finding that some through 
their great importunity and others taking advantage of me when I am in drink, by 
causing me to sign deeds, not only wronging myself, but may spoil it ever being a 
plantation — for these and other I'easons I make over all my right and title of any and 
of all my lands and meadows unto my loving friend James Fitch Jr. for him to dispose 
of as he shall see cause. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Newent, or between the Riveks, now Lisbon. 

The large tract of land lying between the crotch of the rivers She- 
tucket and Quinebaug, was acknowledged by the English to be a part of 
the Mohegan territory. At an early period it was inhabited by a band of 
Indians tributary to Uncas, called by the first settlers Showtuckets. The 
town of Norwich claimed this land as belonging to their commons. 

Feb. 25, 1669. 

" The towne having seriously taken into their consideration the condition of Awan- 
eco, the Sachem, being in hazard of the loss of his Sachemship for want of land to 
accommodate his subjects, for his reliefe herein the towne have seen cause to give unto 
the said Awaneco a parcell of land. Tliomas Tracy, Thomas LefBngwell and John 
Post are to lay out to him 200 or 300 acres at their discretion near Showtucket river, 
and abutting southerly on Qaeeuapaug river, secured also to his heirs and successors 
but not in their power to alienate any part of it." 

To this grant certain regulations were attached in regard to fencing and 
keeping cattle and swine. Notice was also given that all trespassing upon 
the inhabitants of Norwich must be satisfied according to English law, and 
the act concludes in this manner : 

" It is further engaged by Oweneco, that whereas as he hath received these lands by 
gift from the town of Norwich, the town does order that he shall forbear on the Sab" 
bath day from working, hunting, fishing, or any servile labor, and if any of his subjects 
be found guilty of this violation, they shall be liable to be punislied, and to these said, 
and above specified particulars, the said Oweneco doth bind and engage himself, his 
heirs and lawful successors." 

Consented to and subscribed by Owaneco, March 22, 1G69. 



Witnesses : 

James Fitch, 
John Mason, Jr. 




Mark of /^/ # *^'' Owenneko. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 257 

On this grant the sachem gathered his special chm, probaljly some 
twenty or thirty families. An annual tribute of ten deer-skins was at 
first demanded of them, but the scarcity of deer in the vicinity rendered 
that regulation a dead letter. Moreover the village was soon broken up 
by the war with Philip, which called the sachem and his warriors to the 
field, and scattered the women and children among their neio-hbors. 

When the conflict was over, a i)art of this tract was assigned to the 
Indian fugitives, called Surrenderors, and in May, 1678, Mr. p^itch re- 
ported to the government that twenty-nine families of this class had settled 
upon it under the supervision of the English. 

By a deed of trust, Dec. 22, 1680, Owaneco assigned to James Fitch, 
Jr., the care and disposition of all his lands on Quinebaug river. A few 
years later, absolute deeds of sale of these and other tracts of land were 
executed by the sachem in favor of the same Capt. Fitch. 

In 1695, Owaneco and Capt. Samuel Mason, who, by his own choice 
and the authority of the government, had been appointed his trustee, 
requested that a committee of the town should be empowered to survey 
the 300 acre grant and fix its bounds. 

The next year, Capt. Fitch, being then proprietary clerk, recorded the 
whole grant to himself, as included in the large purchases he had made of 
Owaneco in 1684 and 1687. The town entered a formal protest against 
the claims of Capt. Fitch, particularly to the 300 acres at Quinebaug 
Falls, which had been guarantied to the Indians with a proviso that i*! 
should not be alienated. 

The course of Capt. Fitch in regard to these Indian purchases was dis- 
tasteful to the town, and no clear account can be given of the basis upon 
which the difficulty was settled. Apparently the town, after some mur- 
muring, acquiesced in the claim of Capt. Fitch to what was called the 
1800 acre grant. 

Capt. Fitch sold this grant in 1604 and '95, to certain purchasers from 
Ipswich, Mass., viz., Joseph Safford, Richard Smith, Meshach Farley, 
Matthew Perkins, and Samuel Bishop. 

Joseph and Jacob Perkins, also of Ipswich, purchased a tract between 
the rivers in 1695, of John Fitch, and subsequently bought also a })art of 
the 1800 acre grant from the former purchasers. 

Settlements were immediately commenced, and in 1718, sixteen persons 
3n the roll of accepted inhabitants were characterized as 

Farmers in ye Crotcli of ye Rivers. 

Samuel Bishop. Samuel Lothrop. 

Samuel Coy. jabcz Perkins. 

Eleazer Jewett. Joseph Perkins. 

David Knight. josiali Read. 

Daniel Longbottom. Josiah Read, Jr. 
17 



258 HISTORY OF N R AV I C H . 

Joseph Eead. Samuel EooiL 

John Eoad. Samuel Rood, Jiin. 

William Head. Henry Wallhridge. 

Samuel and John Bishop were early settlers in this district. They 
were probably brothers and sons or grandsons of Thomas Bishop of Ips- 
wich. Samuel married in 1706, Sarah Forbes. John, in 1718, married 
Mary Bingham. Samuel was adm. 1702, and John in 1710. 

Matthew Coy obtained a grant of land east of tlie Shetucket in 1685. 
His cattle-mark was registered still earlier. He was probably that Mat- 
thew Coy (son of Matthew) whose birth was recorded at Boston Sept. 5, 
1656. 

Samuel Coy of Newent may have been a brother or a son of Matthew, 
but no such connection has been traced. He had a son Abraham baptized 
in 1719. 

Eleazer Jewett, Dec. 5, 1608, purchased of Messr?. Waterman and 
Bushnell, agents of the town, 75 acres of land near the Shetucket river. 
He is supposed to have come from Rowley, Mass. His son, the second 
Eleazer Jewett, died in 1747, at which time the father was still living. 
Tiie third of the name was the founder of Jewett City village. 

David Knight married, March 17, 1691-2, Sarah Backus. Land was 
granted him in 1700, for repairing the meeting-house and school-house. 
He died in 1744. 

Daniel Longbottom was an inhabitant in 1698, and was chosen one of 
the surveyors in 1702. HimsQlf, wife and six childi-en were baptized by 
Mr. Woodward in September, 1718. He died in 1729. 

Jabez and Joseph Perkins, adm. 1701, were sons of Jacob Perkins of 
Ipswich, and commenced their agricultural improvements between the 
rivei's in 1695, holding their land in common until 1720, when it was 
equally divided between them. Joseph died in 1726, and Jabez in 1742. 
They left large estates and thriving families. 

Josiah Read has been already noticed as one of the original pro})rietors 
of Norwich. His four sons are here enumerated with him as independent 
land-owners and accepted inhabitants. 

Samuel Rood was the son of Thomas and Sarah Rood, and born in 
1666. In 1687 he became a householder, having his residence "below 
Showtuckett Falls." 

Henry Wallhridge was an accepted inhabitant in 1702. William is 
mentioned in 1719 ; Amos in 1721. ^ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 259 

Rioliaitl Adams, though not on the \ht of 1718, was an early proprietor 
between the rivers. He pi'obablj came from Siulbury, and may have 
been the soldier of that name who was wounded in the great swamp fight 
with the Narragansetts, Dec. 19, 1075. His wife, Rebecca, was received 
into fidl communion by Mi*. Woodward in I70.S, and three of his cliildren 
baptized. He died Aug. 24, 1728. His will mentions ten children, among 
whom were four married daugliters, Hannah Bacon, Mary Baldwin, Abi- 
gail Brown, and Rebecca llaggitt. 

William Adams, perhaps brother of Richard, died in 1727. Eliashib 
Adams, of Pi'eston, died May 15, 1733. 

John SaflTord is mentioned as an inhabitant of Norwich in 1G98. John, 
Joseph and Solomon of the next generation were probal)ly his sons. 

John Lambert was an early resident in Newent Society. He died July 
30, 1727. 

Another name found in this society at an early period is that of Burn- 
ham. Eleazar Burnham was recognized as an inhabitant in 1703. He 
was probably the son of Thomas, and born at Ipswich in September, 1678. 
He married Lydia Waterman, Nov. 20, 1708, and died in 1743. 

James Burnham, admitted as an inhabitant in 1710, married, in 1728, 
Elizabeth Hough, and died May 22, 17o7. 

Aaron Burnham, a seaman, first mentioned in 1718; cattle-mark en- 
rolled in 1720 ; died Aug. 18, 1727. His will was proved at Ipswich, 
Oct. 9 of that year. His wife was the sole legatee. 

Benjamin Burnham, adm. 172G, married April 20, 1727, Mary Kins- 
man. He died Oct. 15, 1737. 

These four persons came from Ipswich before 1720. The Kinsmans, 
Palmers and Stevenses were later emigrants, probably from the same 
place. The Lovetts came from Beverly ; the Rathbuns from Block 
Island ; and Tlioraas Crosby from Barnstable.* 

Robert Kinsman was admitted an inhabitant Dec. 5, 1721. lie was 
one of the selectmen in 1725 and 1728. 

The settlement of Newent was for many years obstructed by tlie diver- 
sity of claims arising from a confusion of grants and conveyances. In 
1723 a committee was appointed "to enquire into and gain as good an 
understanding as they can come at respecting the Indians l;uid In the 
Crotch of Quinebaug and Showtucket rivers."t 

* Half-Century Sermon of Rev. Levi Nelson of Lisbon, 1854. 

t After this Indiiin reservation had been entirely cleared of native occupants, one of 
the English owners found at a certain time an old Indian woman, who had come from 
a distance, barking his birch trees and otherwise trespassing upon his grounds; and 



260 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

In 1725, the proprietors of the common and undivided land put an end 
to all controversy by giving a quit-claim deed to Capt. Jabez Perkins, Lt. 
Samuel Bishop, Mr. Joseph Perkins, and Mr. John SafFord, of all the 
Indian land in the crotch of the rivers, and of all contained in Major 
Fitch's 1800 acre grant, for the sum of £75, money in hand, paid to said 
proprietors, provided that the Indians should be allowed to remain and 
occupy the tract that had' been secured to them. To these purchasers and 
to those who should claim under them, the town confirmed the title of 
reversion. The Indians dwindled away, and in 1745 the descendants of 
Owaneco and other principal Mohegans, for the sum of £137, executed a 
quit-claim deed of the Indian reservation in favor of the English claim- 
ants. This instrument, which extinguished the last aboriginal claim to 
land in the nine-miles-square, was in substance as follows : 

Ann alias Cutoih, Betty Aucum widow, Wederaow daughter of Mahomet deceased, 
Ann, otherwise young Ben's wife, all of whom are descendants of Owaneco, late sachem 
of Mohegan, and the said young Ben or Ben Uncas Jr. and Daniel Pauganeek, all of 
Mohegan, for the consideration of 137 pounds in bills of credit — to Capt. Samuel 
Bishop, Joseph Perkins, Jacob Perkins, John Safford, Joseph SaflFord and Solomon 
Safford, to all of them in proportion as they now possess— do now relinquish all right 
and title to the tract of 300 acres more or less in Kewent, in the crotch of the rivers 
Quinebaug and Showtucket, called the Indian Land, abutting southeasterly on the 
Quinebaug. — April 9, 1745.* 

Witnesses, Isaac Huntington. 
Asa Worthington. 

upon remonstrating with her, was met with a fiery and indignant rejoinder. " This land 
yours !" she exclaimed. " How you get it? Indian land, all of it, — you white folks 
come here, — drive away poor Indian and steal his land, — that the way you get it ! " 

This no doubt expresses, in a homely way, the feeling of many of the aborigines, as 
from time to time they have relinquished their ancient seats to the whites, and retired 
into the wilderness. 

* Norwich Deeds. 



CHAPTER XVL 

MOHEGANS AND THEIR SaCHEMS. MaSON CONTROVERSY. 

It is a singular fact that while the Indian Sachems were conveying to 
the English large tracts of land, they were at the same time complaining 
of want of room for their own accommodation. The habits of the race 
made a large extent of territory necessary for their subsistence. They 
must have a different haunt for every varying season ; forests for hunting, 
thickets whei'e they could procure materials for mats, baskets, brooms, 
pails, bowls, and all the varieties of their rude manufacture, as well as 
corn-fields, and stations upon the sea-shore and river banks for fishing. In 
a general form they had ceded all their inheritance to the English, except 
the tract upon the river between Norwich and New London, where Uncas 
had his royal residence ; and here the fresh settlers were crowding upon 
them, and constraining them to adopt agricultural occupations and fixed 
habitations very repugnant to their roving habits. 

More than thirty deeds are recorded in the Norwich books, bearing the 
signatures of Uncas, Owaneco, or Joshua, conveying to various individuals 
tracts of land, most of them comprising hundreds of acres. Similar deeds 
are on record at New London. Often these Indian grants overlapped 
and covered others, leading to many disputes as to titles, and perplexities 
as to bounds, which entangled the rights and claims of the settlers in an 
inextricable maze. One is almost inclined to join in the declaration of 
Sir Edmund Andross, that he did not value an Indian deed any more than 
the scratch of a cat's paw. 

The following record shows that an amicable settlement of all differences 
with respect to land claiias and boundaries took place between the town 
and the aged chieftain of the Mohegans : 

Whereas Uncas, Saclicm of Mohegan, hath of late made application to the Town of 
Norwich for some Releife with Reference to a small Tract of Land wliich fell out to be 
within the bounds of the Town, on the south Bounds, over the Traiding Cove Brook. 
This Town, Considering of liis Request, and of him as an Old Friend, see Cause to 
Gratify kirn witli the said Land as a Gift to him and his heirs forever, and Whereas the 
s"* Uncas doth also Recon upon three pounds yet due to him as arrears of the ])aymcnt 
of the purchas of Norwich Township, though there is nothing apijeuring how the said 
money is due, neither by written nor any other Evidence — Yet notwithstanding the 



262 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Town have Granted his desire as not willing to dissatiefie an Old Friend in such a 
small matter, and the said Uncas Also Declaring himself to be in some fears Eespect- 
ing his .Posterity, whether they may not be infringed of their Liberty of Fishing and 
making use of the Rivers and other Royalties by some English : that being the Reason 
why lie Gave place at the first that we should run the line of the Two miles on the 
East side of the Great River, Beginning at the River : We also satisfie him in this 
writing about it, that he and his successors shall from Time to Time, and at all times 
have full and free Liberty to make use of the Rivers and ponds, with other Royalties 
as abovesaid, not dcbaring Ourselves, and having thus done, we whose names are sub- 
scribed being appointed by the town of Norwich to treat with him the said Uncas upon 
the premises, or any thing Elce that might Conduce to mutual satisfaction , we asked 
him whether now he was fully satisfied as to the former, so Concerning any thing Elce 
depending between him and us, ami he hath declared himself: as witness by his hand 
that he is fully satisfied witli us concerning the premises, so Respecting all our 
Bounds and boundaries, and particularly Concerning the Running of the Line on the 
East side of the River, and Concerning the beginning of the said Line at the River, 
and the end of said Line to a Tree marked near the Dwellinghouse of Robert Allen : 
Dated in Norwich, September P', 1682 : 



The mark * K/ of UNCAS. 




Thomas Leffingwell. '\ 

William Backus. I Entered in Lib'' the second folio !»', 

John Birchard. [ October 18"^, 1682. 

John Tracy. J 

By me, Christopher Huntington, Recorder. 

The exact period of the decease of Uncas has not been ascertained. It 
is supposed to have occurred in the fall of 1683. The latest notice of him 
that has been discovered is the acknowledgment of a deed befoi'e Samuel 
IMason in June, 1 683, According to tradition, the last two or three years 
of his life were mostly dozed away, half stupid in his wigwam. It was 
very common for old Indians to wear out in that way, becoming physically 
inei't, sinking into indifference, and dying as it were for want of thought. 
An active mind undoubtedly assists largely in keeping the vital powers in 
motion. It is said that the English in passing through Mohegan, between 
Norwich and New London, would often turn aside to the royal wigwam of 
Uncas, in order to pay the chief a visit, and in these latter years of his life 
were wont to find him sitting at the door on a rude bench, sleeping in the 
sun ; sometimes with his head lolling on his breast, and sometimes bent 
forward upon his hands, leaning on a staff. It was difficult to rouse him 
any further than to elicit the guttural ugh ! waugh ! or perhaps a listless 
IJosh-ah-me ? How do you do ? or, Ty-an-noh ? How do you feel ? 

All accounts, Indian and English, agree that he was brought to Norwich 
and interred in a spot previously known as the burial-place of the Indian 
sachems. This spot, though not reserved for the Indians in the deed of 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 263 

the town, nor made sure to them afterwards, as far as is known, by any 
legal instrument, has ever since been used by them as the cemetery of 
their royal race ; and tliis right of sepulture has not only been conceded 
to them by the successive proprietors of the land, but several times ex- 
pressly recognized by the town. In the first division of the common 
lands, April, 1661, '■Hhe Indian Graves" was included in the grant to 
Thomas Tracy ; upon which the town, by way of exchange, gave him 
eight acres of pasture land in another place. And though the same spot 
was afterwards granted to P^lderkin, it was stipulated that the Indians 
should always be allowed to pass and repass up the cove and ravine to 
their burying-place, and to cut wood, if they chose, half-way up the side- 
hill. 

The following subsequent grants seem also to admit the Indian priv- 
ilege : 

Dec. 20, 1679. Given to Eicharcl Buslinell a small piece of land upon ye little plaine 
near the land of the Indians where the burying phice is, upon a deep valley that goeth 
down to goodman Elderkin's. 

Granted to Samuel Tracy (1690) six acres on the Little Plain, " by the Indian bury- 
ing place, abutting west on Indian land," and rnnuiiig south to the brow of the hill ami 
John Elderkin's laud. 

The Plain and the land around the Falls were regarded as peculiarly 
Indian land, probably on account of the vestiges left behind of former 
Indian occupation. We have ventured to fix the residence of that old 
Indian sachem who claimed the territory before the English came to Con- 
necticut, in this neighborhood. 

The savage loves the waterfall ; it diverts his loneliness. He settles in 
its neighborhood ; its roar is his music ; the smooth water below is the 
path I'or his canoe ; the fish at its feet are his food. Here he lays up his 
winter store, and the plains above are the fields for his corn.* 

Here then, perchance, stood the wigwams of that ancient tribe, and 
either by them or their immediate successors, the Mohegans, this spot was 
set apart for the burial-[>lace of their sachems. Here the father of Unca^^, 
with Uncas himself, and his sons, and his gi-andson Ciesar, and his great- 
grandsons, those nominal sachems, Ben and Sam Uncas, were gatliered. 
And in later days, from time to time, as the descendants of the old chief 
have melted away, the earth in this romantic cemetery has opened to 
receive their remains. 

* About the year 1830, the gardener of Mr. William C. Gilman, in turning up the 
soil, struck upon a considerable deposit, half a peek or more, of Indian arrow-heads, 
not only of quartz, but flint and other hard stones not indigenous to tiic region. This 
was on the high bank of the Cove below the Falls. 

On the Plain above, numerous arrow-heails have been gathered from time to time, 
and are still occasionally turned up by the spade or plough. 



264 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

But it has probably received its latest guest, and henceforth it is a 
sealed tomb. The race of the Sachems is extinct. The last feeble cur- 
rent of its blood has ceased to tlow. No one remains who has any claim 
to the coveted privilege of sleeping at the feet of Uncas and Owaneco. 

Owaneco died in 1710. The deeds signed by him, on record in Nor- 
Avich, New London, Preston, and some other towns, are numerous and of 
vast import ; comprising large farms and small farms, towns and districts, 
estimated often by miles. The condition expressed is frequently of this 
nature : " To my very good friend John Post, for the love and friendship 
received from him," 200 acres in 1685 ; to Israel Lothrop, "for kindnesses 
received and three coats in hand paid," 150 acres in 1695; "to Richard 
Bushnell, for kind and free entertainment for many years," 400 acres in 
1699. 

Attawanhood, alias Joshua, the brother of Owaneco, was another noted 
land-grantee, but his deeds are less numerous than those of the elder chief. 
Titles in Colchester, Lebanon and Windham ai'e in most instances derived 
from Joshua Uncas, who was considered rather as a river chief, his prin- 
cipal haunts lying towards the Connecticut. 

The signatures or totems of these three sachems, affixed to the various 
deeds executed by them, display as much uniformity as is usually found in 
common hand-writing at different periods. The signatures of the deed of 
Norwich present a fair sample of each. Uncas in that instance drew only 
the arms and body of a man, with a stroke to represent, perhaps, the heart. 
He seems always 'to have subscribed the rude outline of a human figure, 
or the prominent parts of it. The totem of Owaneco is supposed to rep- 
resent a turkey. The head is turned to the right. Joshua's sign-manual 
is a slender four-legged animal, with a conspicuous tail, and the head to 
the left. It might be taken for a fox, rabbit, or woodchuck, but in all 
probability was designed by the sachem to represent the familiar chip- 
muck, or striped squirrel. 

Notwithstanding the title of Sachem, and the lordly idea attached to the 
disposing of such extensive regions as they were accustomed to convey to 
their friends, these chieftains were but little elevated, either in their habits 
or morals, above the common level of savages. Owaneco was in his youth 
a bold warrior, and an enterprising partizan. His exploits at the Nai'ra- 
gansett fort fight, and through the whole of Philip's war, obtained for him 
considerable renown. 

But in maturer years, destitute of the stimulus of war and the chase, 
he used to wander about with his blanket, metomp and sandals, his gun 
and his squaw, to beg in the neighboring towns, quartering himself in the 
kitchens and out-houses of his white acquaintances, and presenting to 
strangers, or those who could not well understand his imperfect English, 
a brief which had been written for him by Mr. Richard Bushnell. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 265 

It was as follows : 

Oneco king, his queen dotb bring, 

To beg a little food ; 
As they go along, their friends among, 

To try how kind, how good. 

Some pork, some beef, for their relief, 

And if you can't spare bread, 
She'll thank you for pudding, as they go a gooding, 

And carry it on her head. 

The last line alludes to the Indian custom of bearing burdens in a sack 
upon the shoulders, supported by a bark strap called a metomp, passing 
across the forehead. 

After the death of Joshua, his son and heir, Abimilech Joshuason, 
claimed the greater part of what is now Lebanon. In 1693, he gave a 
power of attorney to Major James Fitch and Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell, 
to settle the bounds between his land and the towns of Norwich and Wind- 
ham. Toward the latter he claimed that the Willimantic river was the 
true boundary. 

In 171G, Ca3sar, who is styled "the Prince and Sachem of Mohegan," 
made several conveyances of land to individuals. One was to Capt. Rob- 
ert Denison ; another to Lieut. Benajah Bushnell, of two parcels, lying 
between Trading Cove brook and the south line of Norwich. 

Denison's purchase lay ''northward of Norwich purchase line and south 
of the bounds granted by the town to ye Mohegan Sachem." The title 
was allowed by the town, and all claim to the land released in 1720. 

Caesar was the youngest son of Owaneco, and died in December, 1722. 
He was succeeded by Ben Uncas, usually called Major Ben, a descendant 
of Uncas by an inferior wife. The exact date of the decease of Major 
Ben is ascertained from a private diary kept at New London. 

Feb. 11, 172.5. Ben Uncas, the king of the Mohegans, died yesterday. 

His son and successor, Ben Uncas 2d, had been brought up in the fam- 
ily of Capt. John Mason, and was the first of the sachems who discarded 
the old Indian customs, and adopted the dress and modes of living current 
among his neighbors, the English residents. He married Ann Mazzeen, 
a "•rand-dau"hter of Uncas in the female line. 



266 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Mason Contkoversy. 

It seems to have been generally conceded by the English, that the ulte- 
rior right to dispose of land in this region belonged to Uncas. The Gov- 
ernor and Company, however, claimed that he transferred this right to 
them by a deed of Sept. 28, 1640. They asserted, moreover, that he had 
confirmed and ratified the surrender at a subsequent period through the 
agency of Capt. Mason. 

In 1659, before the settlement of Norwich, Mason had obtained of 
Uncas and his brother a general deed of all the lands belonging to them, 
not then actually occupied by the tribe. In this business, it vvas generally 
understood that he acted as the agent of the colony, and it was proved by 
the State Records that he formally surrendered his claim to the General 
Court, March 14, 1660.* 

The descendants of Mason denied the validity of this transaction, c • 
questioned its design, asserting that the conveyance made to their ancestor 
was with the intent to secure those lands to the Indians, by putting it out 
of their own power to convey them to others, that Mason received them 
as their trustee, and had passed over to the colony merely the right of 
jurisdiction, not the ownership of the lands. 

The Indian sachems were thus encouraged by the Masons and their 
party to regard themselves as the rightful owners of all the unsettled lands 
in this part of Connecticut. Out of these premises a long and troublesome 
dispute arose ; the case every year becoming more complicated and im- 
portant. The Masons and Mohegans became closely linked in a claim 
against the colony for the possession of large tracts of land, occupied by 
numerous settlers, and comprising the major portion of Colchester, Wind- 
ham, Mansfield, Hebron, and considerable tracts in some other towns. A 
vigorous and persevering effort, extending over a period of seventy yeai's, 
was made by Mason and his descendants to recover the possession of this 
territory for the Indians. 

The professed object of both parties was the benefit of the Indians, but 
the real controversy was between two classes of the English inhabitants, 
each actuated by political partizanship or pecuniary interest. Tiie Indians 
were little more than tools in the hands of their nominal friends, and would 
have gained but little if the case had been at the outset ostensibly decided 
in their favor. There was a rage among the white residents for specula- 
ting in Indian lands, and the natives would sell either drunk or sober, and 
often sold the same land several times over. Had it not been for the 
guardian care and restrictive legislation of the colony, they would have 
disposed of every foot of their inheritance before 1700, and reduced them- 
selves to the condition of landless, homeless vagrants. 

* Conn. Col. Rec, 1, 359. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 267 

The citizens of Norwich entered into the Mason controversy with great 
warmth and zeal, most of them espousing the cause of the Indians, some 
doubtless from an honest opinion that they had been injured and defrauded, 
and others from interested motives. The case was often tried without 
being brought to an issue. Many persons put themselves to great incon- 
venience and expense in entertaining and clothing the Indians, and for- 
warding their cause, expecting to be remunerated when they should recover 
their rights. On the Indians themselves it had a very unhappy effect, 
puffing them up with hopes never to be realized, and leading them into 
courses of idleness, itineracy, and extravagance. Norwich suffered se- 
verely for her indiscretion, her streets and houses being often tilled with 
these exacting and troublesome guests. 

The case was first submitted to Conniiissioners chosen out of all the 
New England Colonies, and acting under the immediate authority of 
Queen Anne. This court was held at Stonington in 1705. Thomas 
Leffingwell of Norwich, a tried friend of the Indian Sachems, was one of 
the Commissioners, and from his intimate acquaintance with the affairs of 
the tribe, had great influence with the other members. The colony pro- 
tested against the authority of this court, and, refusing to appear before it, 
no defence was made. The decision, as might be expected, was against 
her, but no attempt was made by the English Government to enfore jjie 
decree. 

A subsequent investigation of this case, under the authority of the 
General Court, was made at Norwich, in the winter of 1717-18, and was 
pending at the time of the great snow-storm, famous over all New Eng- 
land, Feb. 17. The proceedings of the Commissioners, who met in the 
house of Richard Bushnell, Esq., were much impeded by the snow. For 
several days the members were scarcely able to get together. 

The next October a further committee was appointed by the Assembly, 
and directed to repair to Mohegan, to hear the grievances of the Indians, 
and to endeavor to settle all differences between them and their neighbors. 
These Commissioners, James Wadsworth, Esq., and Capt. John Hall, met 
at the house of Lieut. Joseph Bradford in Mohegan, ]\Iarch IG, 1720, for 
the purpose of marking out the boundary lines between the Indians and 
the towns of New London and Norwich.* They had another meeting at 
the same place in February, 1720-21, and were apparently very success- 
ful in settling the various claims and reconciling all parties. In conclu- 

* Joshua Hempstead of New London attended this meeting of the Conunissioncrs. 
As he went up, with the aid of two assistants he measured the road from New London 
to Norwich, through the Mohegan territory, and records the result in his diary. "From 
the Mill Dam in New London to Trading Cove brook where we ride over at ye end of 
Norwich plain is 9 mile and a half and 36 rods." The eighth mile, he says, "is in the 
falling ground a little beyond the Stone Tort." 



268 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

sion they laid out and sequestered to the use of the Indians between four 
and five thousand acres of good land, which was never to be alienated 
until the tribe became extinct. These proceedings were ratified by act of 
Assembly, May 11, 1721. 

In 1723, Capt. John Mason, third of that name in regular descent, 
stated to the General Court that the Commission of 1705 had cost him 
more than £600, which was a large proportion of his estate, and he asked 
for indemnification out of the Mohegan lands that had caused the contro- 
versy. Had he succeeded in this application, it might have put an end to 
the contest, but the court decided that he had no claims upon them for 
redress, and the struggle was renewed. The Masons again carried their 
complaints to England, and a Commission of Review was appointed by 
George 2d, to examine the proceedings of the Court at Stonington in 
1705, and discarding all intermediate acts and decisions, to confirm or 
annul the decision of that Court. 

This Commission, consisting of the Lieut. Governor and Council of 
New York, and the Governor and Assistants of Rhode Island, convened 
at Norwich, May 24, 1738. The Commissioners not agreeing as to the 
course to be pursued, the members from New York, at the outset, entered 
a protest and withdrew. The remainder, after an examination of wit- 
nesses, reversed the decision of the court, and gave judgment in favor of 
the colony.* 

John and Samuel Mason, however, would not suffer the matter to rest 
here ; they presented a memorial to the King, alleging that the proceed- 
ings of the court were irregular, and in behalf of the Indians praying for 
a redress of grievances. Orders were therefore issued for a new Com- 
mission of Review. 

This second Court of Commissioners convened at Norwich, June 28, 
1743, and the trial lasted seven weeks. The sessions commenced at the 
house of Simon Lathrop, Esq., but on the third day were adjourned to 
the meeting-house, where the remainder of the sitting was held. The 
town at this time literally overflowed with strangers, and no business of 
any kind was done, except what was connected with the pending contro- 
versy, and the necessary purposes of life. All the officei-s of government 
and distinguished men in the colony were present. The whole tribe of 
Mohegans was quartered upon the inhabitants, and hundreds of persons 
in the neighboring towns, who had lands at stake, came in from day to 
day, to hear the proceedings. The Lathrops, Huntingtons, Leffingwells, 
Tracys, and all the principal men in Norwich, were of the Indian party, 

* "June 5, 1738. The great Court of Commissioners at Norwich is over and the 
case is gone in favor of the Colony. The New York Counsellors, viz. Coll. Cortland 
and Mr. Hossmonden, deserted and drew off and the Gov. & Council of Rhode Island 
hath reversed the former judgment." Hempstead's Diary. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 269 

and kept open house for John Uncas and his people. Ben Uncas was 
upheld by the State, and his party was rendei-ed respectable by the notice 
of all the officers of government. The rival sachems maintained consid- 
erable pomp and state while the trial continued, which was until the 17th 
of August. 

The decision was again in favor of the colony ; but the Masons apjjealed 
from the judgment to the King in council, and thenceforth all legal action 
upon the case was transferred to England. The final decision was not 
until 1707. Sir Fletcher Norton, then prime minister, advised that the 
English should be conciliated by a decision against the Indians. 

It was the prevalent opinion in England that the Mohegans had right 
on their side, but that it was not expedient to do them justice, and indeed 
not equitable, as the English had long possessed and improved the lands 
in question, and the Indians had dwindled away and did not need them. 
One of the Masons, however, remained long in England, prosecuting his 
claim ; obtained money upon it, sold out rights in it, ran in debt upon it, 
was at one time a prisoner in the Fleet, and never returned to his native 
country. The Revolutionary war soon afterwards broke out, the Mohe- 
gans found themselves at the mercy of the State, and never afterwards 
showed any disposition to renew their claims. Occom, the eloquent advo- 
cate and preacher ot this tribe, on hearing of the termination of this affair* 
writes thus to a friend : 

" The grand controversy which has subsisted between the colony of Conn, and the 
Mohegan Indians, above seventy years, is finally decided in favor of the colony. I am 
afraid the poor Indians will never stand a good chance with the English in their hind 
controversies, because they are very poor, they have no money. Money is almighty 
now-a-days, and the Indians have no learning, no wit, no cunning : the English have 
all." [MS. Letter of Occom.] 

(Autograph.) 

In this controversy, our sympathies are very naturally enlisted in favor 
of the Indians ; nevertheless, it does not appear that they were treated 
with any undue severity or injustice by the colony. Most of the settlers 
on the debatable lands, fairly purchased them, and had obtained deeds 
though not, perhaps, always of the lawful owners. And there is reason 
to believe that the Indians themselves would not have complained, had 
they not been instigated by others. This case may fairly be merged in 



270 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

the great question still pending and unsettled, whetlier a cizilized race has 
a right, under any circumstances, to take possession of a country inhab- 
ited by savages, and gradually dispossess the original proprietors.* 

* Materials for the history of the Mason Controversy are to be found in the Book of 
Proceedings of the several Commission Courts in this case, which was printed in Lon- 
don for the use of the King and Council in making their final decision, — a copy of which 
was sent to the Colony, and is preserved among the State Records at Hartford. It 
contains several interesting documents. Among them is one presented at the great 
Commission Court licld at Norwich in 1 743, by Ben Uncas 2d, who was then the chief 
Sachem of Mohegan. Being allowed to differ what he had to communicate, he came 
forward in person, with a Bible in his hand and a brazen crown in the shape of a hawk 
upon his head, and presented a writing, of which the following is the first part : 

" I am now in the 48th year of my age, and after the decease of my father, Ben 
Uncas, in 1725, was chosen and installed chief Sachem and have ever since remained 
in actual exercise of power, and as one evidence, I have here in Court, the Bible trans- 
lated into Indian, which was sent by Charles Second, King of England, unto the then 
chief Sachem and delivered successively at every instalment, and also a certain brass 
hawk, taken from a famous great Captain of the Narragansetts, our enemies, by one of 
my ancestors in a famous battle and victory over said Narragansetts, always delivered 
in like manner and kept as a memorial of the great battle and victory." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Town Affairs. Justices' Courts. 

The annual expenditure of the town during the first century of its 
existence amounted to a very small sum. The heaviest items, unless on 
some extraordinary occasion, were for perambulating and stating bounds, 
laying out highways, plank for bridges, and the bounty on killing birds 
and snakes. Exclusive of this last item, the annual demands upon the 
treasury frequently fell below £10. The expenses arising out of the dif- 
ficulties that existed with neighboring towns, on account of boundaries, 
added some years greatly to this amount. There was an ever-open quar- 
rel respecting a tract of land south of the Norwich and north of the Nev/ 
London line, with the Indians or individual settlers. The disputes with 
Preston were still more perplexing and acrimonious. They commenced 
in 1695, and continued for nearly a century, being a constant source of 
litigation, trouble, and expense. Committees were appointed from year to 
year to settle the boundaiy-line between the tAVO towns, but it would not 
remain settled. In the year 1718 there was an access of bitterness and 
self interest on both sides, and the contention was severe. It is scarcely 
( redible that a contest between friends and neighbors, merely for territo- 
rial jurisdiction, should have been so often renewed, and so long in wear- 
ing out. The hostility, however, as in most instances of the kind in our 
settlements, was not between individual inhabitants, but the towns in their 
collective capacity.* 

List of Town Derts. Dec. 30, 1718. 

To John Tracy for killing 4 snakes, . - - 

Th. Leffingwcll Jr. 6 do - 
Elislia Waterman 67 birds . . . - 

John Rood 24 do . - - 

Jabez Hide 5 snakes - . - . . 

Th. Bingham 4 snakes and drumming 

* In 172.3 the disputes respecting the town boundaries were carried to the Legislature 
for decision. Benajah Bushnell was the town agent in the business. lie v/as absent 
tvelve days, and charged the town .C2 10s. 



£ 


s. 


d. 








8 





1 








2 


9.<r 





1 











10 


1 





8 



272 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Th. Leffingwell Jr. one daj' to meet New London Committee 5 

Joseph Reynolds for a plank - - - - 1 

Solomon Tracy one day on Committee - - 5 

Charges about Preston Line - - - - 6 13 10 
Several persons for perambulating at 3s. per day each. 

Occasionally we find a town expenditure for military equipments, and 
for "ammunition, with the charge of bringing it up from New London." 

In 1720, John and Simon Tracy were appointed by the town "to make 
search for the Towne Armes, with their magazeans of amunition and other 
accotrements for war, injoyned by law," who reported as follows : 

At Lieut. Tracy's two Guns and two pair of Snoe shoes. 

At Samuel Fates one gun and at Lieut. Bushnells one Barril of Pouder and one gun 
and 77 pound of Led.* 

At Lieut. Backuses 344 pound of bullets. 

At Ens. Leffingwells one Barril of Pouder. 

At Deacon Simon Huntingtons one half Barril of Pouder and 31 pound of bullets 
and 400 flints. 

At Simon Tracys one pair of Snoe shoes, and 4 pair of maugosuns— we were also 
informed yt there was formerly Lent to Mr. John Leffingwell pr Lieut. Bushnell 71 
pound of Led which sd Leffingwell was obliged to pay in BuUits ye same quantity. 

All ye Led and BuUits 523 pound. 



The Totvn's Poor. The earliest instance on record of a poor person 
supported by the town, is the following from the records of the county 
court : 

Feb. 9, 1685-6. " The Courte having ordered Katherine Duncffin to be accounted 
the poore of Norwich and by them to be provided for, orders two shillings pr weeke to 
be payde by the Town of Norwich for ye bringing up the child lor 2 years from this 
date." 

Expenses incurred for the poor rarely appear in the early accounts of 
the town, but occasionally, in the course of years, a few items are found ; 
such as, "a pair of shoes for Alice Cook, os.," "a coat and leather breeches 
for old Russell, 12s.," "a sheet to bury John Nickols in, lOs.," "13 watches 
with Gay lor at 2s. per night, £1 6s." 

Dec. 19, 1727. To Thomas Blythe for digging Gaylor's Grave, 5s. 
Dec. 17, 1728. To Jacob Hyde for digging Micah Rood's grave, 4s. 

In 1723, great amazement seems to have been excited in the townsmen 
by what they designate " the extraordinary charge of Henry Wallbridge Jr. 
for entertayneing Christian Challenge in her late sickness and distraction 

* It was not uncommon for soldiers at this time to run their own bullets : this fact 
accounts for the quantity of lead on hand. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 273 

at his house." Yet the whole charge for eight weeks "nursing, diet, and 
strengthening salve," going for doctors, four days waiting and tending, and 
finally conveying her to Windham, amounts only to £3 5s. 6d. Dr. Calib 
Bushnell's bill " tords the cure of Christian Challenge," . stands thus, and 
will show what a physician's fees then were : 

To 3 travells - - - - £0 7 6 

to Lusisalig Bolsum - - - 4 

to 3 times Bleeding - - - 16 

This poor woman appears to have been a traveler, tramper, or transient 
person, as wandering beggars are indifferently called in New England, 
who was "rode over by Solomon Story on the Sabbath day, either wil- 
fully or carelessly," and being very much hurt, was for some time a bur- 
den on the town. 



The Courts. In 1720 the erection of a town-house was proposed. Sub- 
scriptions for the building were taken up, and a corner of the Plain fixed 
upon for the site. Norwich was then engaged in a struggle to wrest from 
New London a share of the county court sessions, and if successful in the 
contest, a town-house would be necessary for the accommodation of the 
courts. But the Legislature did not see fit to grant the half-shire privi- 
lege at that time, and the house was not built. 

Another strenuous effort was made in 1734, the inhabitants petitioning 
the General Assembly that the Supreme Court in March, and the Supe- 
rior Court in November, for New London County, might be held in Nor- 
wich. The agents for the town in this business were Capt. John Williams, 
Caj)t. Joseph Tracy, and Mr. Hezekiah Huntington. The petition was 
granted, and Norwich became a half-shire town. 

Tiie contest had been long and determined, marked in some instances 
with bitterness and exasperation ; but Norwich, having grown rapidly in 
numbers and influence, at length had her claim to a share of the courts 
sanctioned by equity and the public convenience. 

In connection with this privilege, the town came under the obligation 
of f'lu-nishing convenient accommodations for the courts and county pris- 
oners. A new jail or prison-house was soon afterward built and ceded 
to the county, and a town-house erected under the oversight of the se- 
lectmen, the expense being defrayed by a penny tax on polls and ratable 
estates. 

The jail stood under the shelter of the hill, upon the parsonage lot, 
nearly in the rear of the present brick school-house. Tiie town-house 
was at the south-west corner of the Green, with a whi[)ping-post and 
pillory near. 

18 



274 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The key of the town-house was formally delivered into the custody of 
Capt. Joseph Tracy, in 1737, and a room ordered to be finished under his 
direction, in the garret, for the town's stock of ammunition. The follow- 
ing vote was then passed : 

" It is now ordered and enacted, that if any man shall smoke it, in the time of ses- 
sions of any town meeting, within this house, he shall forfeit the sum of 5 shillings." 

In Hempstead's Diary, under date of Dec. 1, 1740, we have the follow- 
ing brief item : 

" Court held in Norwich ; 550 actions, new and old." 

Capt. Joseph Tracy was son to John Tracy, one of the thirty-five pro- 
prietors. He was a very respectable and dignified man, and for a long 
course of years was uniformly chosen moderator of all public meetings, in 
alternation with Capt. Jabez Hide. He died in 1765, aged eighty-three. 

In 1745 we find the care of the town-house and arms committed to 
Capt. Philip Turner, and this is the first time that gentleman's name 
appears on the records. He came from Scituate, Mass., married Anne, 
daughter of Daniel Huntington, and soon acquired an enviable popularity 
among his new associates, performing the duties of constable, selectman, 
and captain of the troop of horse, a spirited band of young men, that he 
took much pride in parading and exercising. Many bright anticipations 
were destroyed by his death in 1755, at the age of thirty-nine. 



April 28, 1730, all the freemen were enrolled. They amounted to 158; 
thirteen more were added in September, making 171. The first on the 
list, and probably so placed in respect to age and dignity, were Joseph 
Backus, Esq., the three reverend ministers. Lord, Willes, and Kirtland, 
and the two deacons, Simon and Christopher Huntington. After these 
come Samuel and Israel Lothrop, William Hide, Esq., Mr. Thomas 
Adgate, Capt. Jabez Perkins, Capt. Benajah Bushnell, and Capt. John 
Leffingwell. 

It is worthy of note, that at this time and ^or many years afterwards, 
there were but one or two citizens at a time who bore the title of Esq., 
denoting a Justice of the Peace. 



The most conspicuous points in town, where all public notifications 
were ordered to be set up, were the sign-post on the Green, Benajah Lef- 
fino-well's gate-post, and "the parting of the paths at the corner of Ebene- 
zer Backus's garden." This last position is still a prominent one, consist- 
ing of an elliptical plot of land, having an elevated platform where the 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 275 

house stands, and embraced by highways that run together above and 
below.* It was the homestead of Joseph Backus Esq., familiarly known 
for many years as Mr. Justice Backus, and afterwai'ds of his son Ebene- 
zer, who built the pi'esent house, and set out with his own hand the two fine 
elms before the door. One of the daughters of Ebenczer Backus married 
the second Governor Trumbull. 

In the town-plot two open squares, or plains, were reserved for public 
use ; one near the centre, and the other on Bean Hill. Repeated applica- 
tions to build upon them, by individuals, were refused, and all encroach- 
ments reprehended. "There shall be no shop, house or barn, or any other 
private building erected on any pai't of said plain," was the language of 
these resolutions. 

In 1729, the proprietors agree, vote, and grant, "that the Plain in the 
Town Piatt, called the meeting house plain, with all the contents and 
extents of it," as it now lyeth, shall be and remain, to be, and lye common 
for public use for the whole town forever, without alteration." 

A similar vote was passed at the same time with respect to " the Plain 
at the westerly end of the Town Piatt, lying between Richard Egerton's 
and John Waterman's, Abial Marshall's and the widow Hide's houses." 



In 1743, Messrs. Richard Hide and Ebenezer Hartshorn were appointed 
to survey the town, and draw a plan of it, embracing the course of the 
rivers and larger rivulets. The town now comprised eight ecclesiastical 
societies, viz.: First, West, Newent, East, New Concord, Chelsy, Hano- 
ver, and Eighth ; but the First or Town Plot society still maintained its 
pre-eminence, possessing twice the number of inhabitants and three times 
the amount of influence of any other. 

Schools were maintained by what was called a country rate of forty 
shillings upon the thousand pounds, and all deficiencies made up by 
parents and guardians. The schools were distributed over the town, and 
kept a longer or shorter period, according to the list of each society. In 
1745 the appointment was as follows: 

School at the Landing Place to be kept, - 3 months and 17 days. 

" two in the Town Plot, one at each end, 5^ months each. 

" at Plain Hills, ... - 2 months 19 days. 

" Waweekus Hill, - - - 1 " 16 " 

" Great Plain, - - - - 2 " 18 " 

" Wequanuk, - - - - 2 " 15 " 

" ou Windham road, - - - 2 " 11 " 

If any of these schools should be kept by a woman, the time was to be 
doubled, as the pay of the mistress was but half that to the master. 

* Now the residence of Mr. Samuel Case. 



276 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The following is a sample of simplicity and disinterestedness in making 
out a bill : 

" Dec. 16 day 1745. The town is Dr. to me Jacob Hide for 208 feet of 2 inch plank 
improved to make and mend bridges by order of the surveyor of iiighways. The price 
of said 208 feet of plank I think must be about 30s. more or less as the town thinks 
fit." 

Voted, that the selectmen pay Jacob Hide what is just. 



In 1746 Mr. Benedict Arnold was chosen grand-juryman, but refused 
to serve. 

The town declared that if any one hereafter refuse to serve on the grand 
jury, he shall pay a fine. 

Town offices in general Avere not considered very desirable, but tbose of 
juror and rate-collector were the only ones so obnoxious as to render fines 
and compulsion necessary in order to obtain the service. 



Law books and other publications for which the town were subscribers, 
were generally distributed among the several societies according to their 
respective lists. Election sermons were also subject to a town order. 

1702. Voted that the Law books belonging to the town shall be sold at 18d. apiece. 

1726. Voted that every Society Clerk shall have a law book and the rest with the 
Sermon books, sold and the money put into the town treasury. 

1751. Eleven law books in possession of the town are ordered to be sold at £5 10s. 
per book, O. T : 4 to First Society, 2 lo West Society, the same to East Society and 
Newent, and one to New Concord. 

17 Dec. 1764. Whereas, there are a number of books called the Saybrook Platform 
now in the town treasury to be disposed of for the town's use, and also a number of 
Election Sermons, this town do now order the selectmen to distribute said books to, 
and among the several societies in this town, in proportion to the list of said societies. 



In 1751 the selectmen were empowered to prosecute with vigor all who 
should sell or convey land to strangers, and all sales of this kind were 
declared null and void. Orders were given likewise that no strangers 
should remain in the town without the public consent, and this consent 
seems to have been very cautiously dispensed. Applications were fre- 
quently made for permission to stay in town for a limited time, but this 
was seldom granted without some condition annexed ; such as, if he then 
remove, — if he bthave himself, — if he do not become chargeable. These 
votes stretch down to 1769. 



HISTOEY OP NORWICH. 277 

1752. A committee was appointed to treat with the Rev. Benjamin 
Lord relating to his I'esigning to the town his right of improvement of the 
parsonage lands purchased of Mr. Giflfords. 

This parsonage land comprised the original home-lot and pasturage of 
the proprietor, Stephen Gifford. A portion of it, bordering the north-east 
side of the Green, was now in request for building purposes. Mr. Lord 
relinquished his right, and the land was divided into lots, several of which 
were rented upwi long leases, and in the course of a few years occupied 
with houses. 

This parsonage land having been sequestered for the ministry when the 
whole town was but one pai'ish, was the cause of some uneasiness and lit- 
igation when other societies were formed ; these societies claiming a por- 
tion of the use and rental. 



1754. "At present the township of Norwich pays the highest tax of any township 
in the colony."* 

A few examples of cases of trespass brought before justices of the peace 
for adjudication, will illustrate the condition of society in the first half of 
the 18th century. 

The penalties at this time were : 

For drunkenness, a fine, (5s. to lOs.,) or to sit in the stocks a couple of 
hours. 

Not attending public worship when there was no necessary detention, 5*. 

Profane swearing, 10s. 

Sabbath-breaking, by labor or vain recreation, making disturbance, or 
laughing during the service in the House of God, 5s. 

Assault and battery, or abusive words, blows and injuries, — fines or 
imprisonment, at discretion of the justice. 

Licontinence, births out of wedlock, or too soon after marriage, £10. 

These and actions of debt were cases which a justice's court was con- 
sidered competent to decide, but appeals were allowed to a higher tri- 
bunal. 

If a judgment may be formed from the number of cases and the appa- 
rent respectability of some of the delinquents, drunkenness was increas- 
ing rapidly in the land. Another species of criminality, so prevalent as 
to excite surprise, was perhaps the natural result of an intercourse too 
little restrained between the young people of different sexes. 

No justice in the county was more popular tlian Ricliard Bushnell. 
Cases were brought before him from Windham, Plainfield, Canterbury, 
Killingly, Preston, North Groton, and North Stonington. 



* Chapter on Connecticut, in Douglass' Summary, printed at Boston in 1754. 



278 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

"3rd of June 1708. Joseph Bushnell of Norwich complained against himself to me 
Richard Bushnell, Justice of the Peace, for y' he had killed a Buck contrary to law. 
I sentenced him to pay a fine of 10s. one half to y" county treasury and one half to 
complainant." 

" March 26 1718. Mrs. Sarah Knight, Samuel Bliss, Joseph Post, Theophilus Ahell 
and his wife and y" wife of William Hide were brought before me R. B. justice of y" 
peace upon y° presentment of y" Grand Jurors of our Sovereign Lord y° king for sell- 
ing strong drink to the Indians last Saturday. 

"Mrs. Knight accused her maid, Ann Clark, of selling the liquor. Refusing to 
acquit themselves by oath they were each sentenced to pay a fine of 20s. to the County 
Treasury." 

"July 20, 1720. Samuel Sabin appeareth before me R. B. Justice of the Peace, 
and complaineth against himself that the last Sabbath at night, he and John Olmsby 
went on to Wawwecoas Hill, to visit their relations, and were late home, did no harm, 
and fears it may be a transgression of y^ law and if it be is very sorry for it and dont 
allow himself in unseasonable night -walking." 

"An inferior Court held at Norwich y" 19. Sept. 172b. Present R. Bushnell Justice 
of y'' Peace. Samuel Fox juror pr. complaint, Lettis Minor and Hannah Minor Pts. 
for illegally and feloniously about y" 6 of Sepf inst. taking about 30 water-milions 
which is contrary to Law and is to his damage he saith y" sum of 20s. and prays for 
justice. This Court having considered y^ evidence dont find matter of fact proved, do 
therefore acquit the Dts. and order y" Ptf. pay the charge of Presentment." 

"May 6, 1721. A complaint was entered by the constable against Samuel Law, 
doctor, for profane swearing : he was fined 10s." 

The same year, Henry Holland of Plainfield was proved guilty of a 
like oifence, and adjudged to pay the fine and cost. Not long afterward, 
Holland was bound over to appear at the next county court, and answer 
for breaking the peace and the law, by saying "in a tumultuous violent 
threatening manner, yt he would take the head of Jona'n Tracy off his 
shoulders." 

" 1722, Nov. 16. Complaint made by Mr. Isaac Wheeler of Stonington against 
William Holdridge of Stonington, for an assault with sword, at the house of said Hol- 
dridge in Stonington : he was bound to appear at the County Court, giving £20 secu- 
rity." 

An Indian being found drunk, was brought before Mr. Justice Bushnell, 
and sentenced according to the statute, namely, to pay a fine of ten shil- 
lings, or receive ten lashes on his naked body. The Indian immediately 
accuses Samuel Bliss of selling him that afternoon that which made him 
drunk, to wit, two pots of cider. The fine for selling cider or ardent 
spirits to an Indian was twenty shillings, one-half to go to the complain- 
ant. The Indian thus obtained just the sum requisite to pay his own 
mulct, and set his body clear. The record of this affair is as follows : 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 279 

"Feb. ye 7 — 1722-3. Apenanucsuck being drunk was brought before me R. Bush- 
nell, Justice of ye peace. I do sentence ye sd Apeonuchsuck for his transgression of 
ye hiw to pay a fine of 10s. or to be whipt ten Lashes on y' naked body, and to pay y° 
cost of his prosecution, and to continue in y° constable's custody till this sentence be 
performed. 

" Cost allowed is 6s 6. 

"John Waterman promises to pay 6s 4. 

"Apeanuchsuck accused Samuel Bliss y' he sold him 2 pots of cider this afternoon. 
Mr, Samuel Bliss appeared before me and confessed he let sd Indian have some cider 
and I do therefore sentence sd Bliss to pay y" fine of 20s. for ye transgression of y° 
law one half to y' town and one half to complainant. 

R. BusHNELL, Justice." 

Isaac Huntington, Esq., was another noted justice, some of whose min- 
utes have been preserved.* A few cases will be given in an abridged 
form. 

In 1738 a charge was brought against Thomas Averj, Ebenezer Bald- 
win, Abiall Marshall, and David Bingham, single men and boarders or 
sojourners in the town, that they "did convean and meet in company with 
sundry others att ye house of William Waterman ye 4th day of June last, 
it being Sabboth evening." 

No complaint was made of any disturbance or impropriety of conduct ; 
it was the bare fact of a social meeting on Sunday evening, which was 
presented as contrary to law.f 

Ebenezer Baldwin pleaded Not guilty, and replied to the charge as 
follows : 

" True it is we did convean with the company and att ye time and place sett forth in 
ye Complaint, but he saith, he is not guilty for these reasons, first, he is not a single 
person, as having an apprentice by indenture, 2dly, he is not a hoarder, having ye care 
of a family, 3dly, he is not a sojourner as living in ye place where he was born and 
bred." 

The Court is of opinion he is guiltij, and fines him os. and costs. Appeal granted to 
be heard in ye County Court. 

July 12. John Downer and Solomon Hambleton for profaning the Sabbath day by 
oystcring, fined 5s. and costs. 

2d day of November, 17.38. Present Isaac Huntington Justice of Peace. 

IMary Leffingwell daughter of Daniell LefHngwell of Norwich, single woman, was 
brought before this Court to answer the complaint of one of ye grand jurors of our 
Lord the king who upon oath presents that ye said Mary Leffingwell on ye 24th day of 
Scpteml)er last, it being Sahotli or Lord's day (and not being necessarily detained) did 
not duly attend ye pul)lick worship of God on the said 24th day in any congregatioa 
by law allowed as by the presentment dated October 7th 1738 and the writt dated Oct 
30. 1738 on file may appear. 

* Original in Otis Library. 

t In County Court, 1715, Paul Davenport of Canterbury appeared and acknowledged 
himself guilty of a breach of the law by riding from Providence to Canterbury on the 
Sabbath day, and paid the fine of 20s. 



280 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The said Mary pleaded not Guilty. Butt not being able to prove to the satisfaction 
of this Court that she was necessarily detained ; nor that she did attend the said wor- 
ship, this Court is of opinion that she is guilty in manner and form. 

And it is therefore considered the said Mary Lcffingwell pay as a fine to ye treasury 
of ye town of Norwich the sum of five shillings and cost of suit. Taxed £0.10.8. 
Judgment satisfied. 

In 1749, Mr. Huntington's record shows that a person was fined 20s. for 
playing cards, and another 5s. for laughing in meeting. 

In 1756, three sons of Capt. John Fillmore, Jr., viz., Nathaniel, Com- 
fort, and Amaziah, were brought before Mr. .Justice Huntington, charged 
with driving the rate-collector from their father's house, armed with clubs 
and making use of threats and abusive language. Being minors, they 
were released without penalty, but tiie record intimates that their father 
was implicated in the misconduct of his sons. The family were probably 
Separatists, and refused to pay rates for the support of the regular min- 
istry. 

These lads were between thirteen and seventeen years of age. Na- 
thaniel, the oldest, was subsequently a soldier in the French war, and 
also in the war of the Revolution. He settled at Bennington, Vt., and 
was grandfather of Millard Fillmore, thirteenth President of the United 
States. 

To show that this rigid supervision of the public morals continued until 
a late period, a few minutes of cases of trespass will be given from MS. 
papers of Richard Hide, Esq., Justice of the Peace, between the years 
1760 and 1780. 

A man presented for proline swearing, Iiaving been heard to say at the public liouse 
— damn me. Sentenced to pay the fine of 6s. and the costs, 6s. 3d. 

Another for a similar offence, the culprit using the words Go to the Devil. Fine 6s., 
costs 8s. lOd. 

A breach of peace by tumultuous behavior, — fine lOs., costs 18s. 8d. 

1771. A young woman presented for laughing, in a meeting for public worship, at 
Mr. Grover's, Sabbath evening — two females for witnesses — culprit dismissed with a 
reprimand. 

1774. Eben'' Waterman Jr. presented by a grand juror, for profaning the Sabbath 
in tlie gallery of the meeting-house in West Society, b}' talking in tlie time of divine 
service in a merry manner, to make sport. Plead guilty — fine 10s. 

" To Richard Hide, Esq., of Norwich, one of his majesty's Justices of the Peace for 
the county of New London, comes Ezra Huntington of said Norwich, one of the grand 
jurors of said county, and on oath informs and ])resents, that Asa Fuller, apprentice to 
said Ezra Huntington, and Edc Trap, son to Tiiomas Trap, and Lemuel Wcntworth, 
son to James Wcntworth, and Hannah For.scy, and Elizabetli Winship, a minor, and 
daughter of the widow Winship, all of Norwich aforesaid, did, in Norwich aforesaid, 
on the evening following the 27th day of May last, it being Sabbath or Lord's Day 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 281 

evening, meet and convene togctlier, and walk in the street in company, upon no relig- 
ious occasion, all which is contrary to the statute of this colony in such case made and 
provided. 

For evidence take Peter Latham and Unice Manning. 

Dated in Norwich, this 11th day of June, 1770." 

Five endorsements are made on the back of this presentment — one for 
each of the offenders — of the following import : 

"June 13, 1770. Then personally appeared Hannah Forsey, and confessed guilty 
of the matter within, and sentenced to pay 3s. to the Treasury of the Tovm and Is. 
cost. — Before Richard Hide, Justice of Peace. — Judgment satisfied." 

Number of persons admitted as freemen of Norwich, from 17G4 to 1777 
inclusive, of the following family names : 

Abell, 12. Huntington, 22. Perkins, 11. 

Backus, 10. Hyde, 22. Smith, 11. 

Bushnell, 10. Lathrop, 24. Tracy, 25. 

Edgerton, 10. -■ Leffingwell, 8. Waterman, 14. 

Other names of early proprietors had not increased in similar propor- 
tion : 

Adgate, 1. Elderkin, 1. Mason, 1. 

Baldwin, 4. Fitcli, 6. Post, 3. 

Bingham, 3. Gager, 5. Reed, .5. 

Birchard, 2. Gifford, 1. Reynolds, 1. 

Bliss, 3. Griswold, 2. Rudd, 6. 
Calkins, 4. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Ecclesiastical ArFAiES. Ministers Woodward and Lord. 

In 1708, the town was presented with a bell by Capt. Rene Grignon, a 
French Protestant who had recently estabUshed himself in the place. 
This is supposed to have been a Huguenot bell, brought from France by 
a band of French exiles, who purchased lands at Oxford, Mass., and 
began a settlement, which the hostile visits of the Indians obliged them 
soon to abandon. Capt. Grignon was one of this dispersed company, and 
the bell had doubtless resounded on the shores of France and amid the 
woods of Oxford, before it came to Norwich. 

A vote of thanks was tendered to the generous captain, and the bell 
was ordered " to be hung in the hill between the ends of the town" and to 
be rung on the Sabbath and "on all public days and at nine o'clock in the 
evening, as is customary in other places where thei'e are bells." 

The phrase, "^■?^ the hill" is a doubtful one, but according to tradition 
the Grignon bell was suspended from a scaffolding erected upon the ridge 
of the hill west of the meeting-house, near the path by which foot-people 
from the upper part of the town came across lots to meeting. Here it 
remained for many years unconnected with the church, and midway be- 
tween the east and west ends of the town-plot. The position was grand 
and imposing. The bell dominated from its lofty site over the wide land- 
scape from Yantic and Plain Hill to Waweekus Hill at the Landing. 

Capt. Grignon was admitted to the privileges of an inhabitant in 1710, 
but enjoyed them only for five years before he was removed by death. 
The town lost in him a liberal and esteemed citizen. His wife preceded 
him to the grave, and he left no children.* 

Dec. 6, 1709, a vote was passed to build a new meeting-house, the di- 
mensions not to exceed 55 feet by 45, to be modeled by a committee of 
the church, and completed by March 1, 1712. 

But now a long and vehement dispute arose with respect to its location. 
One party was for having it stand upon the site of the old one upon the 
hill ; the other, on the plain. Both sides were exceedingly violent and 



* See note at the end of the chapter. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 283 

obstinate, and for two or three years the whole town was abr;orbed by the 
question. At length they agreed to submit it to three impartial gentlemen 
of Lebanon. Capt. William Clark, Mr. William Halsey, and Mr. Samuel 
Huntington were designated as umpires. These persons came to Nor- 
wich, examined the premises with care, heard all that either party had to 
allege, and after due deliberation recommended that it should be built on 
the plain. 

The frame was accordingly prepared upon the plain, but the community 
was not satisfied, and the town refused to concur. Another meeting was 
called, at which only twenty-eight persons voted, but of these, twenty- 
seven were for setting the house upon the hill, and this party prevailed.* 

The new building stood near the site of the old one, and was completed 
for service in December, 1713. A vote was then passed to sell the old 
edifice, which had lasted forty years. f 

John Elderkin, 2d, son of the old church builder, was the architect of 
this new building. After its completion he presented his petition, stating 
that he had suffered considerable loss by his agreement, and praying "the 
worthy gentlemen of the town to make some retaliation." He was accord- 
ingly relieved by a grant of fifty acres of land. 

The expense of this edifice was mainly defrayed by sales of land. A 
meeting-house committee was in the first place appointed, who offered 
laud in lieu of money to be advanced for the w^ork. Capt. Giignon, 
among others, advanced small sums at several different times, and re- 
ceived in return portions of land. 

One of the fixtures of this meeting-house was an hour-glass, placed in 
a frame and made fast to the pulpit ; [cost 2s. 8rf.] This hour-glass, in 
1729, was placed under the particular charge of Capt. Joseph Tracy, who 
was requested to see that it was duly turned when it ran out in service 
time, and that the time was kept between meetings ; the bellman being 
charged to attend his orders herein. 

Nothing has been found on record that furnishes any hint respecting 
the architecture of this church. It was probably crowned with a steeple 
and belfry, but it is doubtful whether the Grignon bell was ever removed 
to it. 

Among the worshipers in this sanctuary was Mrs. Sarah Knight, a 
trades-woman from Boston, who resided for a few years in Norwich, and 
has been identified as the Mrs. Knight whose Diary of a Journey from 

* The place finally decided upon, and the actual building of the house, arc not stated 
in the records ; and the fact that tlie frame-work was prepared and set up on the plain, 
led the author, in the first edition of tliis work, to adopt tlie opinion that this third 
meeting-house was built upon the plain. But farther investigation and the uniform 
testimony of tradition, which show that tlie hill -top was crowned witli a church, where 
the congregation gathered for worship till 1760, or later, have led to a reverse conclu- 
sion. 



284 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Boston to New York, made on horseback in 1704, was preserved in man- 
uscript and first published in 1825. 

The following extract is from the town record, Aug. 12, 1717 : 

" The town grants liberty to Mrs. Sarah Knight to sitt in the pue where she use to 
sit in ye meeting house." 

This evidently refers to a previous residence in the place. According 
to tradition, she presented to the church a handsome silver goblet to be 
used in their communion service. 

Colonel John Livingston of New London, who married Elizabeth, the 
daughter and only child of Mrs. Knight, died in England, but the inven- 
tory of his personal effects was taken at the house of Mrs. Sarah Knight, 
in Norwich, March 10, 1721. She removed afterward with her daughter 
to the Livingston farm in the Mohegan territory, where she died in 1727, 
and was buried in the old cemetery at New London.* 

The old meeting-house was sold to Nathaniel Rudd for £12.5.6; but 
the purchaser afterward representing to the town that he was "sick of his 
bargain," the price was considerably reduced.f The inhabitants of the 
West Farms were at that time looking forward to a separate ecclesiastical 
organization, and the relinquished edifice was designed by Mr. Rudd for 
their use. The frame was doubtless left behind, but the old pews, pulpit, 
galleries, &c., afterward performed a second period of service on a com- 
manding height in the present town of Franklin. 

Ecclesiastical dissensions began to agitate the town immediately after 
the promulgation of the Saybrook Platform in 1708. The Norwich 
Church was of the independent Congregational order, firmly planted upon 
the Cambridge Platform, and jealous of extraneous influences, whether 
civil or ecclesiastical. The members claimed the right of ordering church 
affairs in their own way, and denied the jurisdiction of magistrates and 
presbyteries. 

The Saybrook Platform — a body of rules for the regulation of churches 
— was drawn up and adopted by a council of delegates from various 
churches in Connecticut, at Saybrook, where this instrument was signed, 
Sept. 9, 1708. The delegates were sixteen in number, twelve ministers 
and four laymen. It was confirmed by the General Court in October of 
the same year, and established as a law of the colony. No churches were 
acknowledged by law, as churches, that did not subscribe to this platform. 

But the Legislature added a proviso to the law, allowing churches and 

* Five deeds, to "Sarah Knight, widow and shop keeper," or to " Mistress Sarah 
Kni"-ht, shopkeeper," are recorded at Norwich from 1716 to 1718. In the inventory 
of her estate, her property in Norwich was valued at £210. Slie had made large pur- 
chases of Indian land in partnership with Joseph Bradford. 

t The accounts of the West Farms parish show that they gave for it £5 10s. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 285 

societies that dissented, to exercise worship and discipline in their own 
way, according to their consciences. 

Mr. Woodward had been one of the delegates, and Secretary of the 
Synod. He was a warm advocate of the Platform, and strenuous for its 
adoption by the church of which he was jiastor. It is said that when he 
received the act of the Legislature, accepting and establishing the Plat- 
form as the ecclesia«tical constitution of the colony, he read off the first 
clause of it to his congregation, but withheld that part of it which allowed 
dissenters to regulate their worship in their own way; whereupon the rep- 
resentatives of the town, Richard Bushnell and Joseph Backus, rose in 
their seats and laid the whole act before the people. 

Mr. "Woodward appears at this time to have been sustained by a ma- 
jority of the church, but the rent that had been made widening daily, the 
two members mentioned above and many others withdrew from the con- 
gregation and held meetuigs on the Sabbath by themselves. At the next 
session of the Legislature, the two representatives from Norwich were 
called upon to answer for the course they had taken, and expelled from 
the house with a vote of censure. 

Mr. Woodward made no entry upon the records respecting the dissen- 
sions that disturbed the community. The registry of baptisms and ad- 
missions to the church is all that appears under his hand after 1709. The 
town records are also chary in their allusions to this overshadowing trouble, 
merely giving results, or referring to papers kept on file, which have not 
come down to us. 

The difficulties between minister and people were increased by re[)eated 
complaints on his part of the insufficiency of his salary. In 1711, he 
stated that liis family expenses had one year risen to seven-score pounds, 
and the previous year to six-score. The town, however, voted that they 
"did not see fit to add to their burdens," and granted only the stipulated 
sum of £70. Winter wheat was at this time six shillings per bushel, and 
Indian corn half that price. But to every application of Mr. Woodward 
from year to year for an increase of salary, the town gave a steady neg- 
ative. 

March 11, 1713-4. A writing was received from Mr. Woodward and twice read 
and considered. After which the question was put, " Whether it was tlieir mind 
soberly to dissent from the new Platform of Churcii discipline ; " — the vote passed in 
the affirmative. 

Nov. 16, 1714. This town grants liberty to those that arc dissatisfied with tlic Eev. 
Mr. Woodward's management in the work of the ministry to call another minister to 
preach to them, at their own charge until the difficulties they labor under are removed. 

A protest against this vote was signed by seventeen persons, — Hunting- 
tons, Lothrops, Ti'acySj Watermans, and others, — good names and true. 



286 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

They were now upon the verge of disunion. Several councils were held, 
one succeeding another, but the waves of discord rolled too high to be 
soothed by such expedients. Mr. Saltonstall, then Governor of the col- 
ony, and a strenuous advocate of the new platform, visited them and used 
his influence to restore harmony of opinion, but no reconciliation or com- 
promise could be effected. 

Mr. Joseph Backus, who was one of the leaders of the party opposed 
to Mr. Woodward, went to Ipswich to consult with the minister of that 
place, Mr. John Wise, a noted opponent of ecclesiastical platforms, and 
to Boston, where he visited Dr. Increase Mather, whose opinions in regard 
to church independency were of a similar stamp. He came back, con- 
firmed in determination not to yield the point. 

5 Oct. 1715. "The inhabitants reflecting with great grief and sorrow on ye divis- 
ions and contentions that is yet continuing and increasing in this town, respecting the 
management of ecclesiastical affairs and no likelihood of a good agreement to go on 
together, agree to address ye General Assembly for liberty to be two societies. 

Voted by a full vote." 

Before the above vote was acted upon. Gov. Saltonstall recommended 
the calling of a council to dismiss Mr. Woodward, as a measure that 
mio-ht possibly prevent an actual rupture of the church. This proposition 
being laid before the town, resulted in a vote of 44 in his favor against 25 
opposers.* 

A council consisting of a select number of the most respectable minis- 
ters of New England was accordingly convened. Mr. Stoddard of North- 
ampton was appointed moderator. After long deliberation, the council 
recommended a dissolution of the connection with Mr. Woodward, and he 
was accordingly dismissed, Sept. 13, 1716. 

The difficulties with Mr. Woodward, and his ultimate dismission, excited 
a deep intei-est in the churches. of the country. A disi'uption of the ties 
between pastor and parish was then an uncommon event, and not easy to 
be brought about. The state, as well as the church, ecclesiastical coun- 
cils, minister and people, must all consent to the canceling of the sacred 
bond. 

Mr. Woodward and the town parted very ungraciously ; he, demanding 
arrearases of salary, and they, contending that he had been overpaid his 
just dues. Each party afterward instituted legal proceedings against the 
other for debt or damage, and the accounts were not settled till 1721, 
when Mr. Woodward recovered judgment against the town, and had his 
just claims satisfied. 



* This was called a paper vote. Those for dismission wrote something on their 
papers ; the others brought in clean paper. Capt. Kobcrt Denison was active at this 
meeting, and assisted the clerk in counting the votes. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 287 

Mr. Woodward was a native of Dedhara, Mass. After settling in Nor- 
wich, he married in 1703, Sarah Eosewell, and when he left the place in 
1716, had a family of six children — four daughters and two sons, Rose- 
well and John. He was never settled again, but lived on a farm in East 
Haven, where he died in 1746. 

The dismission of Mr. Woodward did not calm the excited minds of the 
people. To the act itself there was strong opposition, — a protest against 
it, signed by thirty-four persons, having been presented to the council. 
The protesters, however, were mostly farmers upon the outlands, not 
inhabitants of the town-plot. 

On the 19th of September, only a few days after the act of dismission, 
the town voted to invite Mr. Willard to preach for them as a candidate. 
This was probably Mr. Joseph Willard, who graduated at Yale College in 
1714. He is not again mentioned in the records, and it may be inferred 
that the invitation was not accepted. The excitement in the church con- 
tinued, and a rupture seemed inevitable. 

Fortunately, Providence had pi-ovided a peace-maker who was ready to 
step forward and in the temper and spiint of the gospel allay the disturb- 
ances of the church and bring the members together again as one body. 
A town vote of Dec. 6, 1716, was the precursor of this better state of 
affairs. 

"Voted to call Mr. Benjamin Lord on tryal." 

Mr. Lord was a native of Saybrook, and then about twenty-four years 
of age. He graduated at Yale two yeai-s before, and was now just enter- 
ing into the ministry. He came immediately to Norwich, and made him- 
self acceptable to all parties. In June, the next year, he was invited by 
a unanimous vote of the chui'ch to become their minister, with the offer 
of £100 per annum for salary, with the use of the parsonage lands, and 
wood sufficient for his use, to be dropped at his door, — "provided he set- 
tle himself without charge to the town." 

He was ordained Nov. 20, 1717; both parties uniting in their esteem 
for him, so that he was accustomed to say he could never tell which was 
most friendly to him. At his ordination the church explicitly renounced 
the Saybrook Platform as their code of faith. 

The following members of Mr. Fitch's church were still alive : 

William Backus, Solomon Tracy, Joseph Eeynolds, 

Stephen Giftbrd, Samuel Lothrop, Chr. Huntington, 

Th. LefRngwell, Joseph Lothrop, Simon Huntington, 

Joseph Bushnell, John Elderkin, Samuel Griswold, 

Richard Bushnell, Esq. Caleb Abell, Nathaniel Backus. 
Josiah Reed, 

These, and fifteen others received into the church by Mr. Woodward, 
composed at this time the male members of the chiu'ch. 



288 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

Mr. Lord merited the praise accorded to him, of being "a Repairer of 
breaches and a Restorer of paths to dwell in," For twenty-seven years 
after his settlement, the pastor, church and congregation acted harmo- 
niously together, like brethren in unity. " So that [using his own words] 
from a Massah and a Meribah, a place of Temptation and Strife, this in 
a good measure became a Salem, a place of Peace." 

April 30, 1767. Voted to maintain the ministry not by a rate but by contributions 
to be taken up by the deacons on the first sabbath of every month. 

The two deacons of Mr. Fitch's church were Thomas Adgate and Hugh 
Calkins. The latter becoming aged, Simon Huntington appears to have 
been associated with them, probably about 1G80, After this the deacons 
are presented in pairs, — a younger pair being chosen for assistants as the 
elders advance into the vale of years. 

Simon Huntington, the son of Deacon Simon, and Christopher, the son 
of the proprietor Christopher, constituted the second generation of dea- 
cons. In 1718, Thomas Adgate, 2d, and Thomas Leffingwell, were cho- 
sen assistant deacons. Mr. Letfingwell died in 1724, Christopher Hunt- 
ington in 1735, and Simon in 1736, leaving only Deacon Adgate in office. 

On the 18th of January, 1737, a fourth set came into office, viz., Hez- 
ekiah, son to the late Dea. Christopher Huntington, and Ebenezer, son to 
the late Dea. Simon Huntington. 

No other deacons were appointed until 1764, when Simon Huntington, 
son of Deacon Ebenezer, and Simon Tracy, Esq., were chosen and intro- 
duced into office, with great solemnity. Hands were imposed, and Dr. 
Lord preached on the occasion from 2 Tim. 3:8-10. [Aug. 31. J 

The venerable Deacon Adgate, born in the eighth year of the settle- 
ment, lived to be ninety-two years of age. His existence nearly covers 
the whole space from the settlement to the Revolution. 



Note. — Rene Grignon. 

Capt. Grignon was one of the company of protestant exiles, or Huguenots, that settled 
in tlie town of Oxford, Mass., about the year 1686. That settlement having been broken 
up by the Indians in 1696, the exiles were dispersed into various parts of New England. 
Capt. Grignon came to Norwich, first as master of a trading vessel, but he afterward 
settled in the town as a goldsmith, and was received to the privileges of a regular 
inhabitant in 1710. 

His will is dated March 20, and proved April 12, 171.5. He appointed Richard 
Bushnell executor, and bequeathed to him his "silver-hilted sword, double-barrel gun, 
and case of pistols." After small legacies to Daniel Dcshon, James Barret, and "Jane 
Jearson, alias Normandy," he gives the remainder of his estate "to my dear and well- 
beloved friend Mary Urenne." These persons were all probalily members of his fam- 
ily. His wife had deceased a short time before him, and in the inventory of his estate 
her apparel is estimated at £32. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 289 

His house, bam, and interest in mills was set down at .£630. 
A negro woman and her ciiild, ^40. 
Horse, £25. Books, £23. 

Many debts were however to be paid, and the residue was small. 
This estimable French Captain and his wife were undoubtedly interred in the Hunt- 
ington burial-ground, but no memorial points out the place. 

Daniel Deshon, afterward a well-known citizen of New London, was a Huguenot 
youth in the family of Rene Grignon, and is thus remenil)ered in his will : 

" I give to Daniel Deshon my goldsmith's tools, and desire that he may learn the 
trade of some suitable person in Boston, and have ten pounds when he comes of age." 

The youth was accordingly placed with John Gray, a goldsmith of Boston, with 
whom he removed to New London, where Gray died in 1720. 

To James Barret, an apprentice to Capt. Grignon, the will relinquishes the remain- 
der of his time. 



19 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Eogerene Episode. Paper Currency. 

The Rogerenes, or followers of John Rogers, were a small religious 
sect that originated in the vicinity of New London before the year 1700. 
Their history does not belong to Norwich, and will be no further intro- 
duced than is necessaiy to give a clear statement of certain events that 
took place in the town on the 26th and 27th of July, 1725, — events of 
minor importance in themselves, but of considerable notoriety at the time. 
Both parties having made printed statements of the affair, we have the 
aid, or rather the perplexity, of opposite lights in reviewing the scene. 

The Rogerenes esteemed all days alike in regard to sanctity. To 
destroy priestcraft and the idolatry of Sunday, were special objects of 
their leader's mission, and his disciples, at several distinct periods of 
enhanced zeal, devoted themselves to the same task. To produce any 
effect, aggressive movements were necessary, and they made various 
attempts to break up the worshiping assemblies of their neighbors. They 
were accustomed, on the Sabbath, to separate into small bands, and go 
through the country, entering the meeting-houses in time of divine service, 
and by various noises and other provocations, interrupting the worship. 
They made several visits to Dr. Lord's meeting-house, but that excellent 
man always treated them with great lenity. John Rogers himself, the 
founder of the sect, beset Dr. Lord one Sunday morning, as he came out 
of the house, to go to meeting, and followed him thither, inveighing and 
shouting against priestcraft, as was his usual custom. Just as the venera- 
ble minister reached the porch of the meeting-house, and taking off his 
hat displayed an august and graceful white wig, Rogers exclaimed in a 
loud voice, "Benjamin ! Benjamin ! dost thou think that they wear white 
wigs in heaven ! "* 

After the death of their founder in 1721, there is no account of any 
Rogerene visit to Norwich, till Sunday, July 26, 1725, when a party of 
eight persons were arrested and committed to prison for traveUng on the 

* One of the Rogerene elders on horseback, passing through Norwich, saw a certain 
deacon with whom he was acquainted, in a field, mowing. Dismounting and leaning 
over the wall, he called aloud, " Deacon ! will you stop mowing awhile and argue ? " 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 291 

Sabbath. They were tried the next day. One of them was a woman, 
Sarah Culver by name, called by them a singing sister. They stated that 
they were on their way from Groton to Lebanon, to baptize a person, or 
see him baptized by others, as circumstances should be. One of their 
party, named Davis, they declared vested with apostolic commission and 
authority to preach and baptize. Some of this sect had previously been 
taken up in other parts of the county, and fined five shillings per head for 
breaking the Sabbath, and they now traveled in defiance of the law and 
its penalty, boasting that they could buy the idolators' Sabbaths for five 
shillings apiece. But on arriving at Norwich, they found, as Mr. Justice 
Backus observed, that they had risen in price, for, being taken before the 
said justice, they were sentenced to pay a fine of twenty shillings per 
head, or to be whipped ten or fifteen lashes each. Not being able to pay 
the fine, they were obliged to submit to the latter punishment. 

According to tradition, sticks of prim were used, and one of the com- 
pany had warm tar poured over his head and his hat put on in that state, 
as a reprisal for his contumacy in refusing to take off his hat in court. 
These ax'e legendary exaggerations. The accounts published at the time 
say nothing of the tar, and they distinctly state that the strokes were 
inflicted with a whip-cord.* 

Tlie party being released, proceeded to Lebanon, where the next Sab- 
bath they were again arrested on a similar plea of desecrating the day, 
but their fines were paid for them by some compassionate citizens. They 
then challenged the ministers of Lebanon, Messrs. Piatt and Williams, to 
a public debate, at which, says Mr. Backus, they were completely foiled. 

The Hon. Joseph Jenks, deputy-governor of Rhode Island^ took the 
part of the despised Rogerenes, and issued a proclamation respecting the 
ai'rest at Norwich, which he caused to be posted up in various parts of 
his own State, in order, as he stated, that the people might see what was 
to be expected from a Presbyterian government in case Connecticut should 
succeed in the efforts she was then making to obtain the jurisdiction over 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. In this document the case is 
briefly stated that a peaceable company of Rogerenes "were going on the 
First Day of the Week to a religious meeting at Lebanon in order to bap- 
tize, or see a person baptized and were all apprehended as malefactors 
and unmercifully whipt." 

* It has been a current tradition that prim hedges were once common in Norwich, but 
that withs of prim being used to whip the Quakers, they began immediately to decay, 
and it has since been difficult to make the ])lants flourish. We can not ascertain, how- 
ever, that the Quakers were ever arrested and punished in Norwich, except in the 
instance above related. Nor does it appear from any authentic source that a scene of 
tarring and feathering, — tliat odious exhibition of popular indignation, — was ever en- 
acted within the limits of the town, either against the despised Quakers of old, or the 
defiant tories of the Bevolution. 



292 HISTORY OF NOKWICH. 

Joseph Backus, Esq., the justice that officiated on this occasion, issued a 
reply to the proclamation, in pamphlet form. He states that the traveling 
party timed their arrival in town so as to meet the people coming from 
their morning worship ; that they called out loudly to some of them, and 
when brought before a magistrate, acknowledged that they knew it to be 
against the law to travel on that day, but that they did it in defiance of 
the law. The stripes, he said, did not exceed ten, except in the case of 
the most obstinate of them, viz., Davis, who received fifteen ; that the 
insti'ument was a single cord, without a knot in it ; and he adds : 

" By their resolute choice they constrained me to order this punishment or disregard 
the law." 

" Moreover some of the people freely offered to some of them to pay their fine for 
them. But they refused the kindness with disdain, and saying in such significative 
expressions that they would not take up a pin from the table, or give the dust of their 
nails to be discharged, and would not miss of the stripes for a great sum." 

John Rogers, son of the founder of the sect, and one of the suffering 
party at Norwich, published a rejoinder to Mr. Backus. His statement 
is, that they were passing through Norwich, along the country road, in an 
orderly manner, and were onward the best part of a mile beyond the 
meeting-house, when they were arrested and made prisoners by a consta- 
ble and a rude set of young men, who offered great abuse to some of the 
company. 

He acknowledges that they traveled in defiance of the law, but it was a 
law '' set up by man to prevent people from serving God according to their 
consciences." The cord used, he says, was too large to admit of a knot; 
the wounds it inflicted were terrible, and the marks would remain in the 
bodies of the sufferers till the grave should hide them. 

" The martyrs chose the flames as much as we chose the whip ; for neither they nor 
we chose either the flames or the whip, but as we were compelled thereto by our cruel 
persecutors." 

In reference to their rejection of the proffered kindness of paying their 
fine, he says : 

" Some at Norwich talked of paying the fine, but did not do it ; but at Lebanon, the 
next week, under similar circumstances, they actually paid it."* 



* The eight persons of this Rogerene party were John Rogers, John Bolles and Jo- 
seph BoUes of New London, John Culver, Andrew Davis, James Smith, John Water- 
house and Sarah Culver from Groton. Tliey were going to Lebanon at the request of 
Mary Mann of that place, " who sent us word," said John Rogers, "that she desired 
to be baptized by our Society." She was baptized after they arrived in Lebanon, and 
a few days later they baptized Elisha Mann. On the 25th of August a public dispute 
was held at Lebanon, between the Rev. Mr. Whiting and Josiah Gates, a Sabbatarian, 
respecting the First-day Sabbath. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 293 

Paper Cuurency. 

Mr. Lord's salary had been fixed at £100 per annum. In 1726 a 
present was made him of £25, and the next year twelve contributions 
were granted him, to be taken up on the first Sabbath of every month. 
These gi'atuities were to compensate for the depreciation of the currency. 

The first paper money, or Bills of credit, emitted in Connecticut, had 
the date of July 12, 1709. The emissions were repeated in small parcels, 
at intervals, afterwards. For many years no redundancy of the circulating 
medium was apparent, and the depreciation of the bills was of coui-se tri- 
fliug. Tlie issues were generally employed to defray the expense of some 
warlike expedition, and were both a convenience and an advantage to the 
community. When the bills came back to the treasury in payment of 
taxes, they were destroyed. 

The greatest difficulty attending the issue of these bills, was the ease 
with which they could be altei'ed or counterfeited. In 1735, so large an 
impression of counterfeit bills was in circulation, that the Assembly 
ordered an issue with a new stamp, to the value of £25,000, to be ex- 
changed for the old ones. 

In I7i0, on account of the war with Spain, bills were emitted to the 
amount of £45,000, and several smaller sums afterward. These were 
called Bills of the New Tenor ; all before this took the designation of Old 
Tenor. 

Until the emission of the New Tenor, the credit of the old bills was 
tolerably supported. The depreciation now ran on with rapid strides, and 
confusion in accounts, perplexity and Avant of confidence in the dealings of 
man with man, suspension of activity and pecuniary distress wei-e the con 
sequences. The clashing of old and new tenor rendered the currency 
mazy and uncertain. Prices were greatly enhanced, but fluctuating; 
impositions frequent, and speculation triumphed over honest industry. It 
was a difficult thing to graduate price to vahie, with a currency so vague 
and fluctuating. At this time a bill of twenty shillings would scarcely 
balance an ounce of coined silver, though professing on the face of it to 
be equal to three ounces, silver being reckoned at 6s. Sd.^per ounce.* 

* The exportation of sterling coin from Great Britain was prohibited by acts of Par- 
liament, and this coin never became the common currency of New England. The 
place was supplied by Spanish coinage. Accounts were kept in pounds, shillings, and 
pence, l)at Spanish dollars, or pieccs-ofeight, as they were then called, though only 
four shillings and six pence sterling, were valued in the New England colonies at six 
shillings. In 1683, the General Court of Connecticut ordered that all piecesof-eight, 
Mexico and pillar pieces, should ])ass at six shillings apiece. Piecesof eight were 
identical with the Spanish milled dollar, and received their name from being of the 
value of eight rialls, or nine-penny-pieces. Most of the specie currency of New Eng- 
land consisted of Spanish coins and the Massachusetts pine-tree money of three valua- 
tions, shilling, six-pence, and three-pence. 



294 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

In 1741, Mr. Lord had an allowance of £200 in addition to bis nominal 
salary. After 1746, the fixed rate of O. T.. currency was 45s. to a dollar 
of N. T. 6s. — that is, seven and a half to one. 

It may be interesting to note the prices of a few articles in the early 
part of the century, when ti-ade was carried on by barter, by specie, and 
occasionally paper money, but before the latter had lost any of its nominal 
value. 

Wheat, 5s. per bushel. Cheese, 4d. per lb. 

Kye, 3s. " Tallow, 5c?. 

Indian corn, 3s. " Supfar, 6c?. and 8d. 

Oats, Is. 6c?. " Molasses, 2s. 4c?. per gallon. 

Turnips, Is. " Quire of paper, 2s. 

Milk, Uof. per quart. Pane of glass, 2s. 3c?. 

Wool, Is. 4c?. per lb. Pair of shoes, ^s. and 5s. 6c?. 

Beef, 2c?. per lb. Day's work of laborer, 2s. and 3s. 

Pork, 3c?. and 3^c?. Day's work with a team, 6s. 

Butter, 6c?. Town Clerk's salary, £1 10s. 

A bowl of toddy, 6c?. A bell-rope, 3s. 

A meal of victuals at a tavern, 6c?. or Sd. 

A barber's charge for once shaving, 2c?. — a year's shaving, £1. 

"A fals tail," (copied from a barber's account,) 3s. 

The fluctuation of the currency is strikingly displayed in the varying 
expenditure of the town. 

In 1736 the town expenses were £84, of which one item was a charge 
of Dr. Perkins for attendance on the poor, £24 Is. Yet the next year, 
the whole amount of expenditure, including the doctor's bill, amounted to 
only £14. 

In 1738 the hitherto unexampled sum of £105 was expended by the 
town, but nearly half of it was consumed in prosecuting the law-suit with 
Preston respecting boundaries, which was still left undecided. 

Town expenses in 1744, £120. 

In 1750, £187.17.9. 1751, £171.3. 

In 1752, £751. A large proportion of this sum was for laying out 
highways. 

In 1753, £286. 1754, £351. 

In 1755, £887. This included the sum paid for seventy pounds of 
powder and twenty hundred-weight of lead to supply the town with 
ammunition. 

1756, £100. 1757, £51. 1758, £14. 1759, £22. 

Down to 1730, the usual rate levied for town expenses was a half-penny 
on the pound. In 1740, it was three farthings ; in 1752, four pence; in 
1754, seven pence. In 1757, it went back to three farthings. 

The burden of a depreciating currency falls unequally upon a commu- 
nity. Clergymen, orphans, widows, charitable funds, all that depend on 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 295 

annuities and salaries, suffer from the diminution of income. Trade and 
all kinds of business depending on credit and extension, become confused 
and restricted. Clergymen are peculiarly liable to suffer loss. If there 
is a disposition to wrong them, they have few means of redress ; but it is 
evident that in justice they ought not to be compelled to receive in pay- 
ment of their salary, bills of credit beyond their current value. 

In the case of Dr. Lord, equity prevailed, and an annual compensation 
was for several years made to him in order to balance the low value of 
money. In 1753, he received £850 as an equivalent for £100 lawful 
money. The bellman's salary was then £40 per annum. 

This uncertain currency was not confined to Connecticut. The other 
New England colonies suffered in like manner. In Boston, besides the 
Old and New Tenor currency, they had " Land Bank Money," a kind of 
Old Tenor bill first issued in 1714, "Province bills," and "Last Emission" 
paper. 

The reimbursement granted the Colonies by Parliament for the capture 
of Cape Breton, being paid in silver, was the happy occasion of bringing 
back a silver medium. The colonial authorities called in their bills and 
exchanged them for silver. In Massachusetts the reimbursement consisted 
of G35,000 ounces of silver and ten tons of copper, which was i*eceived in 
September, 1749.* This being the largest share, and Massachusetts the 
earliest to be relieved from the incubus, it obtained for a time the enviable 
designation of the Hard Money Colony. 

In 1751, Parliament enacted a law prohibiting the American Colonies 
from issuing Bills of Credit, except for the current expenses of govern- 
ment, or in case of invasion by an enemy, and these were never to be 
considered legal tender for debts. This prohibition, with the supply of 
silver that had been received, soon put an end to the paper money system 
which had so long perplexed and weakened the country. 

The Connecticut bills disappeared by degrees. Several years elapsed 
before they were all considered as redeemed. A small amount of interest- 
bearing bills was issued in 1755, and occasionally afterward; but they 
suffered no depreciation, and were soon redeemed. 

In 1757, the currency was flowing once more in its old channel. Mr. 
Lord's salary was reduced to £66 13s. Ad. lawful money, and twelve con- 
tributions; the bellman's to £3 10s. 

There were no more emissions of paper money in Connecticut until 
January, 1775, when the Revolution resorted to bills of credit for its sup- 
port, and the flood of Continental currency began to spread over the land. 

* Great quantities of the old paper bills were burnt by a committee of the Legisla- 
ture, and the plates destroyed. Tlie reimbursement was in whole and Iialf pistareens, 
at the value of 14ic?. the pistareen. 

Felt's Mass. Currency, p. 124. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Animals. 

In addition to droves of neat cattle and swine, and flocks of sheep, the 
inhabitants at one time turned their attention ^to the keeping of goats. 
Herds of these troublesome animals roamed at large, until they became 
an intolerable nuisance. No law of the colony then existed for their 
restraint. Joseph Tracy, in 1722, having taken up a herd of fifty-four 
goats trespassing upon his land, impounded them; whereupon their owner, 
Joseph Backus, brought a suit against him before Mr. Justice Bushnell, 
which was decided as follows : 

" This Court having heard and considered the pleas on both sides in this action, and 
also the law quoted to, and finding i'l the last paragraph in said hiw it is said, 'all neat 
cattle and horses taken &c. shall pay Sd. per head, and swine I2d. and sheep \d. per 
head,' and nothing in said law concerning goats, this Court cannot find any thing al- 
lowed in the law for impounding of goats, and therefore this Court consider that the 
plaintiff shall recover of the defendant his cost of prosecution." 

Nothing further appears upon record respecting goats, but the following 
action of the. town, which relates to an act of the Legislature, by which 
goats had been made impoundable : 

" At a General Court at Hartford May 15, 1725, the representatives of Norwich hav- 
ing laid before this Court that the act respecting Goats, October last, is very grievous 
to their town, this Court grants liberty to said town to except themselves out of said 
act : — 'This town do now by their vote, except themselves out of said act." 

The lands upon the Yantic, at the time of the settlement, were greatly 
infested with wolves and foxes. Long after the settlement, bears or 
wolves were occasionally seen, coming from the woods towards their old 
haunts, and on finding themselves near the habitations of man, they have 
rushed- forward, terrified and causing terror, till they found a secure refuge 
in the uncleared swamps that still in some places skirted the river. 

In the early stages of the settlement, therefore, the craft of the hunter, 
the trapper and the sportsman was pursued from necessity instead of pas- 
time. A wolf-hunt was not an uncommon winter sport until after 1700. 
The report that howls had been heard, issuing from some lonely swamp 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 297 

or tliicket, or that a flock of sheep had been attacked, would soon bring 
out an intrepid band of sportsmen, eager for adventure. 

Depredations upon the fold and the barn-yard were often made, not 
only by the animals named, but by another popularly called the Woolla- 
neag,* or Sampson Fox ; the same animal that figured in the annals of 
witchcraft under the name of the Black Cat. Naturalists call it the Fisher 
or Pekan, \_Mastela Canadensis'\ It is still occasionally seen in the wilder 
parts of New England. But these and all the smaller mischievous quad- 
rupeds were in a few years either entirely driven away, or reduced so 
greatly in number as to be seldom troublesome. Birds and snakes were 
not so readily vanquished, and it was necessary to offer rewards and boun- 
ties for their destruction. 

A half-penny and at some periods a penny per head was granted for 
each and every blackbird and crow killed, tlieir heads to be exhibited by 
the claimant to one of the townsmen ; and two pence apiece for all rattle- 
snakes killed between the first of April and the fifteenth of May, the tail 
and a joint of the bone to be received as evidence. The first fifteen days 
of May was the season generally approprinted to hunting the rattlesnake, 
and the people turned out for this purpose in large [)arties. 

Notwithstanding the smallness of the bounty, so many birds and snakes 
were killed every year that it became a considerable item in the town 
expenses. Twenty snakes and a hundred birds were at one time brought 
in by a single person. The bounty for killing a wolf was 10s. %d. ($1.75.) 
This appears to have been claimed but once after 1700, viz., by Samuel 
Lothrop. 

No better haunts for rattlesnakes could be found than among the locks 
and glens of Norwich. Imagination still associates the idea of these 
formidable reptiles with many a dark ravine and sunny ledge. There 
are certain rocks and declivities that even yet are known by such names 
as Rattlesnake-den and Rattlesnake-ridge. Tiiese serpents grew here to 
the size of a man's wrist, and to the length of three and four feet. 

AVaweckus Hill was famous for these reptiles. It is a popular tale that 
a cunniiiu; player on the violin once went to tliat hill with his instrument, 
and enticed a large rattlesnake to follow him into the town street, fascina- 
ted by his music. 

Another tradition is that an adventiu-ous lover, returning home late one 
even n^ from a visit to the lady of his heart, was both snapped at by a 
wol and hissed at by a rattlesnake, just as he jjassed through a turn-stile 
near tlie plac^e since known as Strong's corner. Tiiis young man, whose 
name was Waterman, lived above the meeting-house, and the lady he vis- 
ited, below the Little Plain. To walk two miles at that period, through 

* Woollaneag is tl;e name given to this animal by the Connecticut Indians. iSomo 
t il)L's ( a 1 it Warraneatr. 



298 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

thicket and swamp, to make an evening visit, and back again at midnights 
was an undertaking almost equal in heroism to that of swimming over the 
Hellespont. 

A tremendous host of these baneful reptiles sallied forth every spring 
from the ravines and clefts of the rocks, to bask on the ledges or glide 
through the green pastures and meadows below. It is appalling only to 
read the dry statistical returns made by the serpent-hunters to the select- 
men, and consider the number of heads and rattles, bones and skins, 
brought by them for vouchers and cast down for the bounty. How strong 
then must have been the nerves of those who went foi'th to do battle with 
these coiling monsters, attacking them in their nests, or with still more 
hazard meeting them warm and hissing on the rocky slopes, with their 
renom at its height and all their lithe articulations exalted to the point of 
furious attack and desperate encounter. 

Though the rattlesnake is considered a slow-moving animal that seldom 
bites unless first trodden upon or struck, he is furious in his charge. The 
power of fascination, currently, but no doubt falsely, ascribed to him, and 
the extreme virulence of his poison, producing death in some instances, 
give a terrific intei'est to the details of the snake-hunter. 

In 1720 the bounty was doubled to 4:d. per head, and 76 charged that 
season to the town; 28 by Moses Woodworth. In 1721 the number 
slaughtered was 1 60 ; the widow Woodworth presenting the spoils of 23, 
and David Knight, Jr., 28. The next year 123 were brought in, Stephen 
Woodworth claiming the bounty for 48. In 1724, 69 were brought in, 
and of these David Wentworth was credited 29. 

In 1728 the number was only 46 ; but of these, nine were rattlesnakes, 
destroyed by widow Smith. 

1730. Voted, that whosoever shall kill a rattlesnake within this township at any 
time within one year ensuing, except in the three summer months, and produce one 
joint of the bone and its tail shall have two shillings for each snake so killed. 

This law was the next year declared in force till otherwise ordered. 

Under the stimulus of this premium, many fierce old rattlers were 
hunted out and slaughtered. In 1731 the number claiming the bounty 
was nearly 300: in 1732, over 100; in 1733, 174; in 1734, 63; in 
1735, 54. 

Dec. 15, 1735. Voted to pay four shillings apiece for rattlesnake's next year. No 
pay to be given unless the snake be shown within 24 hours to the selectmen or to two 
indifferent neighbors. 

In 1736, 112 snakes were presented, and upwards of £20 paid in 
bounty. The following is a memorandum of one of the selectmen, of 
those exhibited to him: 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 299 

May, 1736, An account of rattlesnakes tails brought to me, Joseph Perkins. 
Jacob Perkins brought 7 tails. 
Thomas Pettis " 5 " 
Samuel Lawrence brought 3 rattles. 



Abijah Fitch 
John Bingham 


1 
3 


Eohert Kinsman 


4 


Joshua Hutchius 


' 23 


Ezra Lothrop 


2 



In 1737, only 21 were destroyed. In 1738, 78; of these, 27 were 
brought in by Jacob Hazen. 

In 1739 the bounty was raised to ten shillings a head for all killed, 
except in the months of June, July and August ; provided that the killer 
took oath that he went out for no other purpose than to destroy them. 

This did not produce any large number of victims ; the reptile race was 
evidently on the decline. A few were annually brought in, but they 
diminished in number from year to year. 

We find no town action on the subject of rattlesnakes after the year 
1764, at which time the bounty of twenty shillings, old tenor, was com- 
muted into six shillings lawful money. 

A solitary but noted serpent of this species, that had long been known 
to haunt a high ridge of land in the central part of the township, and. 
which was prematurely considered at the time the last rattler of Norwich,. 
was 'destroyed in 1780. His traces had been often observed, and his 
haunt sought, but without success. He dwelt under a large rock, and his. 
hole had an outlet on both sides, with a branch in another direction to 
which he could retreat, so that it was a work of some difficulty to outwit 
him. But he was at last both "scotchkl" and killed. 

Since that period, at considerable intervals of date, here and there, a 
rattlesnake has been discovered and destroyed. One was killed upon the 
farm of Mr. Zephaniah Lathrop, May 27, 1801, which measured five feet 
two inches in length, and had twenty -one rattles ; supposed therefore to be 
twenty-one years old. 

The genuine rattlesnake is now probably extinct in this neighborhood. 

The red-snake, vulgarly called the rattlesnake's mate, also abounded ia- 
Norwich, and is still occasionally found. This species of snake is very 
beautiful in color, being of a chocolate or nut-brown, curiously barred and 
mottled with changeable hues. In the poison darted from its fangs, it is 
only second to the rattlesnake. It gives no warning, but when roused, 
draws up, leaps, and bites, in the space of two seconds, and it is said, will 
reach the flesh through a thin boot. The wound is followed by immediate 
pain, swelling, and great inflammation. Instances have occurred in which, 
it has become serious, by neglect, improper treatment, and exposure to 



300 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

cold and wet, breaking forth afresh every year in the snake season, and 
causing lameness or other infirmitjies. 

This species is sometimes called the deaf adder, and is probably identi- 
cal with the copper-head, [boa contortrix.'] It is still a vivacious inhabit- 
ant of the rocky woodlands ; its thick head and large yellow eyes being 
the dreaded image that haunts the sunny ledges in the months of May 
and June. Several have been killed in the rocky pastures of the town- 
plot since 1860, and even in 1864 a nest of them was found and destroyed 
on the rocky highland in the rear of the Free Academy. The largest 
was nearly three feet in length,. and is preserved in the museum of the 
Academy. 

The black-snake of the present day is comparatively a harmless crea- 
ture ; but stories ai-e current of these reptiles having attacked children in 
the whortleberry-fields, or haymakers in the meadows, and wound them- 
selves about the body and throat, so as to produce suffocation. When 
"Waweekus Hill was first cleared, the workmen were greatly annoyed by 
them. There is a tradition to the following effect : A party of laborers 
were out on the hill at work, and one of them being employed at some 
distance from the others, his companions were suddenly alarmed by his 
cries and shrieks for help. They ran to his assistance, and found him 
rolling on the ground with several black snakes on his body. He stated 
after his rescue, that these reptiles came upon him out of a thicket, with 
such fury as to put it out of his power to defend himself They wound 
about his legs, lashed them together, bound up his arms, and were near 
his throat when his friends came to his assistance. No attempt will be 
made to prove the truth of this story, but doubtless it is as well founded 
as that of Laocoon. Supposing the man to have been asleep when the 
reptiles swathed his limbs, it is not absolutely incredible. 

One species of black snake, which formerly infested this region, was 
called ring-snake, or racer, and was known by a white or yellow ring 
around the neck. They Avould erect the head seven or eight inches from 
the ground, and in this attitude, with tongue out and eyes glaring, run 
with the swiftness of a horse. They were bold, fierce, and dangerous. It 
was this species that had the credit of swathing the limbs of its victims, 
but these stories are now regarded as entirely fabulous. 

In later days, even down to the present generation, black-snakes have 
been found in the uncultivated or sparsely settled parts of Norwich, and 
in the more retired towns of the vicinity, in such numbers and of such 
magnitude as to render almost crcidible the wildest traditions of tlie olden- 
time concerning them. In April, 1810, 28 black-snakes were killed at 
Lisbon, within the space of an acre and a quarter, the total measurement 
of which was 114 feet. From a single nest or burrow of these animals, 
at Griswold, in 1844, no less than 63 were extracted, in a half torpid 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 301 

state, varying in length from three to nearly sis feet.* Similar instan- 
ces occur from time to time, and occasionally find their way into print. 
The following notice will bring this article down to the latest date : 

" A copperhead snake three feet long was killed by two young men in the woods 
near this city, May 21, 1865."t 

* Newspaper items. t Norwich Bulletin. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Beginnings at the Landing. 

The original Landing-place was below the Falls, at the head of the 
Yantic basin or cove, where Elderkin's mill was situated. As trade in- 
creased, and positions lower down were occupied for business purposes, 
the term Landing Place was transferred to the point where the rivers 
unite, and the upper station — the original Indian canoe-place — was distin- 
guished as the old Landing-place. 

What is now Norwich City, or Chelsea Society, with its crowded pop- 
ulation, its work-shops, ware-houses, stores of merchandize, its terraced 
streets, cupolas, spires, dwelling-houses, rising in tiers, line above line, was 
at first known only as Weequaw's Hill, Rocky Point, and sometimes Fort 
Hill, from which it is inferred that an Indian fort or stone inclosure once 
crowned its summit. 

For the space of seventy years after the settlement, the greater part of 
Chelsea was technically a sheep-walk, belonging to the inhabitants of the 
east end of the town, and used by them for the pasturage of cattle. The 
reservation extended from No-man's Acre to the mouth of the Shetucket, 
and was inclosed with a general fence. A cartway through it was allowed, 
and in 1680, "a pair of bars" connected with this cartway was maintained 
by the town, near the Shetucket, and another pair below the house of John 
Reynolds. The whole space between Yantic cove and the Shetucket was 
a wilderness of rocks, woods and swamps, with only here and there a cow- 
path, or a sheep-track around the hills ; where the trunk of a fallen tree 
thrown over a brook or chasm served in lieu of bridge. Not only in the 
spring floods, but in common heavy rains, a great part of East Chelsea, 
and all the lower, or Water street, up to the ledge of rocks on which the 
buildings upon the north side of that street are based, were overflowed ; 
and even in the dry season these parts of the town were little better than 
swamps. What are now only moist places, and slender rills, were then 
ponds, and broad, impetuous brooks. 

In January, 1684, a committee was appointed to lay out and bound for 
the town's use sufficient land for a public landing-place and a suitable 
highway connected with it ; after which they passed the following restrict- 
ive decree : 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. . 303 

April, 1684. "It is agreed and voated that the rest of the ungranted and unlayed 
out land at the mouth of Showtuck shall be and remain for the benefit of cattle water- 
ing and never to be disposed of without the consent of eight or tea of the familys at 
the east end of the towne." 

It was not long, however, before this act became a dead letter. Sites 
at the water's edge were soon in great demand for commercial purposes. 
These were prudently doled out by the town in plots of three or four rods 
each. In 1686, Capt. James Fitch, the first of these grantees, was allowed 
sufficient land near the water side to accommodate a wharf and warehouse. 
Not long afterward, Capt. Caleb Bushnell obtained a similar grant. These 
facilities were near the mouth of Yantic Cove. It was here that the 
wharfing, building, and commercial enterprise of Norwich Landing began. 

1692. A Committee appointed by the town to go with John Elderkin and to state 
a highway to the old Landing place, with conveniency also for a ware-house. 

October, 1694. Mr. Mallat, a French gentleman, desiring liberty of the town that 
he might build a vessel, or vessels, somewhere upon our river, the town grant the said 
Mr. Mallat liberty to build and also grant him the liberty of the common on the east 
side of Showtucket river to cut timber for building. 

Mallat's ship-yard is supposed to have been at the Point. It was not 
long occupied, and the fee of course reverted to the town. 
In 1707, a vote was passed of the following emphatic tenor: 

" No more land to be granted at the salt water and no way shut up that leads to the 
salt water." 

The first masters of vessels at the Landing, of whom we obtain any 
knowledge, were Captains Kelley and Norman. These, in 1715, were 
engaged in the Barbadoes trade. 

May 11, 1715. Capt. Kelley in the Norwich sloop sailed for Barbadoes. 
Sept. 8. Capt. Kelley sailed for Barbadoes. 
Dec. 13, 1716. Capt. Norman sailed.* 

Capt. Kelley very soon established a regular ship-yard at the Landing, 
the town granting him the necessary facilities. 

Jan. 10, 1716-7. Joseph Kelley, shipwright, has free liberty to build vessels on the 
Point where he is now building, the town to have the use of his wharf. 
[This grant was not revoked till 1751.] 

The same year Caleb Bushnell applied for a situation by the water-sidef 
convenient for building vessels, which was granted by the following vote: 

Dec. 3, 1717. The town grants to Caleb Bushnell 20 feet square upon ye water upon 
the west side of the rockie Point at ye Landing place. 

* Diary kept at New London. 



804 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Between 1721 and 1724, similar grants of "20 feet square on the west 
side of Rockie point," were made to Simon Lothrop, Joshua and James 
Huntington, and Daniel Tracy, a sufficiency for the town's use being 
reserved on which they were not to encroach. These were all enterpris- 
ing young men, just entering into business. Simon Lothrop afterward 
purchased the Elderkin rights on Yantic Cove and at the Falls. 

April 20, 1723. The town grants liberty to Cap.t. Caleb Bushnell to set up and 
maintain two sufficient cart gates across the highway that goeth to the Little fort. 

Feb. 25, 1724. Voted to build a town wharf at the Landing place. 
Liberty is granted to Lieut. Simon Lothrop to build a wharf at the Landing place 
at his own charge provided it shall be free to all mortals. 

1734. Permission granted to Lieut. Simon Lothrop to build a ware-house on the 
side hill opposite his dwelling-house, 30 feet by 20, to hold the same during the town's 
pleasure. 

The limited extent of these grants shows that they were highly prized 
and that but few such privileges could be obtained. A narrow margin of 
level land, at the base of water-washed cliffs, comprised the whole accom- 
modation. 

With the exception of these footholds upon the water's edge, the land 
lay in common. Along the Cove and around the Falls the woods and 
waters were reeking with rank life, both animal and vegetable. The rock 
ledges were the haunts of innumerable serpents ; the shores were popu- 
lous with water-fowl ; the river with shoals of fish. The young people 
from the farms around Norwich, when haying was over, came in j^arties 
to the Landing to wander over the hills, eat oysters, and take a trip down 
the river in canoes or sail-boats. 

In 1718, there was a division of proprietary lands, called the forty-aci'e 
division. In ]726, the undivided lands that remained were mainly com- 
prised in two sheep-walks. A public meeting was called, in which the 
names of the proprietors of each were distinctly declared and recorded, in 
order to prevent, if possible, all future " strifts and law-suits." The East 
Sheep-walk, of 900 acres, more or less, was divided into shares of twenty 
acres each, and ratified and confirmed to forty-two proprietors, mentioned 
by name, or to those who claimed under them. The West Sheep-walk, 
by estimation 700 acres, was in like manner divided and confirmed to 
thirty-seven proprietors. 

Rev. John Woodward and Rev. Benjamin Lord were admitted on the 
footing of original proprietors, as were also the representatives of the 
earliest class of accepted inhabitants, viz., Bushnell, Elderkin, Roath and 
Rood of the east end, Abel and Armstrong of the west. To these were 
added Moses Fargo of the west and Edward King of the east, each 
allowed a half-share, making 79 in all, who were acknowledged as repre- 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 805 

sentatives of the oi'iginal grantees of the town-plot. From this division, 
it was understood that farmers out of the town-plot, and all persons not 
claimants under the tirst grantees, were excluded. 

Israel Lothrop and James Huntington were the town agents in making 
the division of the East Sheep-walk. The lots extended along the water 
from the Shetucket ferry to the cove, reserving a highway through them 
two rods wide. A second tier was laid out in the rear of these ; and so on. 
Each share was divided into tenths, and the tenths into eighths, and dis- 
tributed apparently by lot. It is expressed in the records by making a 
pitch, as thus : " Capt. Bushnell made his pitch for his portion of the 
sheep walk" at such a place. 

The titles to land in this part of Norwich are derived from these 42 
proprietors of the East end, and the dates begin at 1726. After this 
division, houses and inhabitants increased i-apidly, and in the course of a 
few years Rocky Point became a flourishing hamlet and trading-post, 
called in common parlance The Landing, but gradually acquiring the 
name of New Chelsey, or Chelsea Society. 

The earliest householders at the Landing, of whose residence there we 
find any certain account, were Daniel Tracy, Benajah Bushnell, and Na- 
thaniel Backus. A little later, Capt. Joseph Tracy and Capt. Benajah 
LefHiigwell were substantial inhabitants, and Caleb Whitney kept a public 
house. Boating was brisk in the river, and small vessels were built and 
sent away for sale. 

Among those who were efficient in opening avenues of trade and bi'ing- 
ing business to the new port, none were more conspicuous than Capt. John 
"Williams and Capt. Joshua Huntington. The former resided with his 
family at Poquetannock, and the latter in the town-plot, but each had a 
wharf and ware-house at the Landing, and here was their place of busi- 
ness. Capt. Huntington occupied the Point, near Kelley's ship-yard. It 
was l)y heirship from him that this locality went into the Bill family, — 
Capt. Ephraim Bill having married his only daughter, Lydia. 

Great are the changes that have been made around the water-line of 
Norwich [)ort. All the sharp angles and projecting rocks, the trickling 
streams and gullies, have disappeared. Central wharf spreads out far in 
advance of the old town wharf and the water-line where Fitch and Bush- 
nell had their first conveniences; and the granite ridge at whose base 
Kellt-y built his coasting-craft, and the Huntingtons, Bills and others had 
their warehouses, has been leveled to a platform occupied by the freight- 
depot and other accommodations of tlie railroad. 

Tlie division into freeholds gave a powerful impetus to the growth of 

the Landing. Trade became suddenly the presiding genius of the place. 

Those merchants who had been so fortunate as to obtain situations upon 

the water's edge, entered at once into commercial pursuits. From a 

20 



306 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

report prepared by authority in Connecticut, to be laid before the Lords 
Commissioners for Ti'ude and Plantations, probably befor 1730, we learn 
that four sloops were at that time owned in Norwich and engaged in the 
West India and coasting trade, viz. : 

Sip. Martha and Elizabeth, - - - 40 tons. 

" Success, - - - - - 40 " 

" Olive Branch, .... 25 " 

" Mary, - - - - - 20 " 

Not long afterward the Norwich traders sent a sloop and a schooner to 
Ireland. As these we suppose to have been their first adventures across 
the ocean, every item relating to them is interesting. They probably 
sailed in company, but the schooner returned without her consort. 

7 Nov. 1732. " The Norwich scooner, Nath: Shaw master, came in from Ireland." 
[Hempstead's Diary.] 

The sloop was under the charge of Capt. Absalom King, and appears 
to have been owned by himself and those who sailed with him. They 
sold the craft in Ireland, probably in accordance with the plan of their 
voyage, as vessels were then frequently built in the river, where timber 
was plenty, and sent elsewhere for a market. The crew embarked for 
home in the schooner with Capt. Shaw, but during the voyage five out of 
the fifteen persons on board died of the small pox. Among the victims 
was Capt. King, who died in mid ocean Sept. 3, 1732. 

Capt. Absalom King came to Norwich from Southold, Long Island, and 
had been for several years in the West India trade. His wife was Han- 
nah, daughter of John Waterman. His youthful widow married, Nov. 8, 
1733, Benedict Arnold. 

This is the earliest notice that we find at Norwich of Benedict Arnold, 
—a Rhode Island emigrant, whose name, when afterwards borne by his 
son, became synonymous with treason and apostacy. No intimation is 
given of the causes that brought him to Norwich ; but he appears to have 
been at first a seaman, and it is not improbable that some connection with 
Capt. King in that capacity first introduced him to the town and after- 
wards obtained for him the favorable notice of the bereaved wilt?. He 
and liis brother Oliver are both distinguished by the title of Cap'atn. 

In 1740, a memorial was presented to the town by Joshua Abe!-, John 
Hutchins, and others, praying for a convenient highway to be opened to 

* Hinman's Antiquities, p. 352. The date of the document is not given, but it waa 
undoubtedly between 1720 and 1730. The whole number of vessels in the colony was 
42, the largest of which was a brigantiiic of 80 tons, owned at New London. They 
were mostly small sloops. New Haven and New London had each five; ll.irtford and 
Norwich, four. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. SOT 

the Landing. This was strenuously opposed by the landholders on the 
line of" the proposed higiiway, and rejected by the town at that time. But 
a few years later the object was happily accomplished, and two conven- 
ient avenues were opened, one on each side of the central hill. The two 
pent highways that had been previously used, that on the east through 
land of Col. Hezekiah Huntington, and the one on the west through land 
of Col. Simon Lothrop, were exchanged for streets laid out through the 
same lands, but more direct in course, and left open for public use. These 
improvements were sanctioned by the consent of all the parties concerned. 

The eastern avenue thus opened, coincided with Crescent and a part of 
Union streets, terminating at the house of Nathaniel Backus in Union, not 
far from the corner of Main street. The western avenue coincided with 
tlie greater part of Washington street, and ended at "Capt. Bushnell's old 
ware-house." The committee for making these improvements consisted of 
William Morgan, Hezekiah Huntington, Philip Turner, and Joseph and 
Simon Tracy. 

In 1750, Daniel Lathrop, Nathan Stedman and Capt. Philip Turner 
were appointed a committee to open a highway by the watei"-side, con- 
necting the above-named streets. This was the first laying out of Water 
Street. 

After this, " the old highway over Waweecos Plill, between the Little 
Plain and Landing Place," was seldom used, and Capt. Benajah Bushnell 
obtained permission to enclose it, on condition of maintaining convenient 
bars for people to pass. 

Tlie Little Plain, — so called in distinction from the Great Plain, in the 
southern part of the town toward Mohegan, — was at this time private 
property, included in grants to the early settlers, with no part open to the 
public except the streets above mentioned leading to the Landing. 

In making these highway improvements and in other works of public 
interest requiring public spirit and skillful management, Capt. Turner and 
Nathan Stedman were zealous and persevering agents. These were com- 
paratively new inhabitants. Stedman was an attorney, son of John Sted- 
man of Lyme, and not of the Hampton family of Stedmans. After a few 
years residence in Norwich, he removed to Ashford. Philip Turner spenc 
the I'emainder of his short career in the town, and his dust is mingled with 
its soil. 

Pt'c. 1748. It is ordered that warnings for town meetings shall for the future be set 
op at ilie Landing place on some post lo tee provided by the inhabitants there. 

A sign-post was accordingly set up at Mr. Peter Lanman's corner, as 
the most central and conspicuous situation. 

1751. Voted that the district for highways at Chelsea be divided as follows — Begin- 
ning at the water, south of the westerly corner of Daniel Tracy Jr's house at the Land- 



308 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

ing place, thence a straight line to where the highway goes across Waweecus hill, thence 
to the N. E. corner of John Bliss's land — thence a straight line to the parting of the 
paths on the Little Plain, at Oliver Arnold's corner—thence a straight line to the 
N. W. corner of Joshua Prior's dwelling house.* 

The common lands and flats upon the Cove, extending as far up as 
"Elijah Lathrop's Grist Mills," were laid out in 1760 or near that period. 
The shares were divided into tenths, and each tenth into eight several par- 
cels or lots, as the sheep-walks had been. 

From the General List of 1757, it appears that there were then eighty- 
seven resident proprietors of rateable estate in "the society of New Chel- 
sy," and twenty-five non-residents. 

* " Oliver Arnold's corner " was at the head of the plain, just where the streets part 
at the present day. Joshua Prior's dwelling-Iiouse is supposed to have been near Col. 
Huntington's oil-mill. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Commerce and the French War. 

The year 1760 may be taken as the era when the commerce of Nor- 
wich, which at two distinct periods, before and after the war, became 
important, received its first great impulse. A foresight of this prosperity 
was obtained by the fathers of tlie town, in 1751, when they made the 
following declaration : 

"Whereas, the town did formerly grant to Mr. Joseph Kclley, shipwright, to build 
vessels at the Landing-place, where he is now building, during the town's pleasure, and 
would give him twelve months notice, do now declare that tlieir will and pleasure, as 
to his building in said place, is at an end, the place being much wanted for public im- 
provement, and do now give him notice thereof accordingly, and order the selectmen 
to notify him by sending him a copy of this act." 

From this period onward, the interest in navigation continued steadily 
to increase. John Rockwell of Preston, who died in 1753, refers in his 
will to "my vessel now at sea," and occasional glimpses are obtained of 
sloops and freight-boats, with now and then a schooner plying up and 
down the river. In the "New London Summary," the first newspaper 
issued in this part of the colony, which began in 1758, advertisements of 
the Norwich vessels were frequently inserted. As in August, 17 GO: — 
" For Meuis or Chignecto, the sloop Defiance, Obadiah Ayer, master ;" 
also, "The sloop Ann, Stephen Calkins, master, lying at Norwich Land- 
ing, ready for freight or passengers." 

Nova Scotia was then open to emigrants, and speculation was busy with 
its lands. Farms and townships were thrown into the market, and adven- 
turers were eager to take possession of the vacated seats of the exiled 
Acadians. 

By the treaty of peace in 17G3, this territory was confirmed to the 
English. The provincial government caused it to be distributed into 
towns and sections, and lots were offered to actual settlers on easy terms. 
The inhabitants of the eastern part of Connecticut, and several citizens of 
Norwich in particular, entered largely into these purchases, as they did 
also into the purchases, made at the same period, of land on the Delaware 
river. The proprietors held their meetings at the town-house, in Norwich. 



310 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

and many persons of even small means were induced to become subscrib- 
ers, in the expectation of bettering their fortunes. 

The townships of Dublin, Horton, Falmouth, Cornwallis and Amherst 
were settled in part by Connecticut emigi-ants. Sloops were sent from 
Norwich and New London with provisions and passengers. One of these 
in a single trip conveyed 137 settlers from New London county. Tiie 
second Capt. Robert Denison was among the emigrants. 

Norwich, as well as other towns in Connecticut, was taxed with the 
support of a certain number of the French Neutrals, a harmless and 
much-abused people, who in the year 1755 were driven from their seats 
in Acadia or Nova Scotia by their English conquerors, and forced to take 
refuge in New England. JIany of them subsequetly returned to Canada. 
Capt, Richard Leffingwell, in the brig Pitt, carried 240 of these French 
peasants with their priest to Quebec in 1767. 

A back country of some extent made its deposits in Norwich, and its 
citizens were induced to enter largely into commercial affairs. Chelsea 
was their port, and instead of exhibiting, as heretofore, nothing but ship- 
yards and ware-houses, fishermen's cabins and sailors' cottages, it now 
began to show some respectable buildings. Let us suppose ourselves 
walking through its streets about this period. We might see lying at the 
wharves, perhaps departing or entering, the coasting sloops. Defiance and 
Ann; the London packet, P^benezer Fitch, master; the Norwich packet, 
Capt. Thomas Fanning; the brig Two Brothers, Capt. Asa Waterman; 
sloop Betsey, Capt. William Billings ; the Nancy, Capt. Uriah Rogers ; 
the Charming Sally, Capt. Matthew Perkins, &c. 

Here is the mercantile establishment (1765) of Jacob DeWitt, who has 
just settled in the place ; that of Gei'shom Breed, (wiiose shipping-store, 
then newly-erected, is still extant and novv occupied by his grandson) ; that 
of John Baker Brimmer, who keeps a little of every thing, and gives "cash 
for ox-horns, old pewter and hopps ;" that of Ebenezer Colburn, iron- 
monger and cutler, at the sign of the Black H<»rse; that of Isaiah Tiffany, 
who keeps "ribbons, fans, calicoes, lawns and china-ware, just imported 
from London ;" and that of Nathaniel Backus, Jr., at the corner where is 
now the Norwich Bank. This was the most conspicuous position in Chel- 
sea. The step-stone at the door, broad and high, served for a horse-block, 
where females from the country, who came into town for shopping, mounted 
and dismounted from their horses. 

Some of the merchants, from the first beginnings of their commei'ce, 
imported goods directly from Great Britain, either in their own vessels, 
or in packages landed at Boston and New York and consigned to them. 
The invoice value ranged only from a few hundi'ed to three or four tiiou- 
sand pounds each, annually, but the fact displays a creditable degree of 
enterprise and commercial aptitude. From 1760, onward to the Revolu- 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 311 

tion, there were four or five of these importing merchants in the place. 
During the long wars with France and Spain, the risks at sea from cap- 
ture were great, and insurance ran high, — varying from five to fifteen 
guinea^ per cent. The latter high rate was demanded in 1758, and again 
in 17G2. In ordinary times it was but one and a half or two per cent. 
After 1770, the importations increased in amount, and the Norwich im- 
porters usually owned the vessel and paid the insurance themselves. The 
goods were consigned direct, and the duties paid at New London. 

The invoices comprised many articles that might easily have been man- 
ufactured at home, but for the parliamentary restraints. Felt hats, for 
instance, were then a common article of importation, the colonists being 
forbidden to make them, even for their own use. Nails, paper, loaf sugar, 
snuff, spices, were all imported from Europe. Ribbons, crapes and laces, 
though enormously high, were in demand, and we find also upon the 
invoices such articles of fancy as " Barleycorn necklaces," "London dolls," 
and '' London lettered gartering." Printed linens, chintzes and damasks 
made a great show upon these old counters. Plain linens were staple 
articles, imported largely, and occasionally a piece of Holland cotton inti- 
mates the beginning of a trade in cotton cloth. 

At this period the best assortments were all up town, and the ladies of 
Chelsea were as much accustomed to go thither to do their shopping, that 
is, if dry goods or fancy articles were wanted, as the ladies of the town 
now are to go to Chelsea. 

The goods in the retail stores of that day were somewhat oddly assorted* 
For instance, one man advertised sheep's-wool, codfish, West India prod- 
ucts, and an assortment of European dry goods. 

"N. B. As the subscriber has an interest in a still-house at Chelsea, he expects to 
have Kew England rum constantly to sell." 

This was rather a descent from the usual select phraseology which 
offered ibr sale, " Choice Geneva just from Amsterdam." 

The nomenclature of dress-goods was as diversified as at the present 
day. In addition to the general terms of satins, modes, crapes, calicoes, 
and bi-oadcloth, we find hum-hum, wild-bore, elasticks, moreens, durants, 
calimancos, tammys, royal-rib, shalloons, errainetts, stockinetis, satinetts, 
russeletts, German serge, dufiles, taflfety. 

William and Peter Lanman, Jeremiah Clement, merchant, and after- 
ward first deacon of the church, Capt. Thomas Fanning, ship-master and 
merchant, Jabez Dean, Asa Peabody, Ejihraim Bill, Gershoni Breed, and 
Prosper Wetmore, are some of the fresh names engrafted into the history 
of the town about the middle of the century. 

The Lanman brothers were merchants from Plymouth, Mass. William 
died in 175G. The business was continued by Peter, and the firm remained 



312 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

in his name and that of his son, Peter Lanman, Jr., as partner and suc- 
cessor, for more than fifty years. 

Prosper Wetmore was from Stafford. He settled at Norwich in 1747, 
on his marriage with Anne, daughter of Hezekiah Huntington, and from 
that time till his death, in 1788, took an active part in town and church 
affairs. For many years he was sheriff of New London county. His 
wife died in 1754, and he married Keturah Chesebrough of Stonington. 
Sheriff Wetmore's house was on the bluff near the extreme end of Rocky 
Point, afterward the residence of Dr. Lemuel Boswell. 

Lieut. Gershom Breed was a descendant of Allen Breed, who emigra- 
ted to this country about 1630, and settled in Lynn, Mass. John, a grand- 
son of the first emigrant, removed to Stonington, where he married Mercy, 
daughter of Gershom Palmer, and united with the Stonington church in 
1690. Gershom, his tenth and last child, married Dorothy McLarran, a 
grand-daughter of Dea. Joseph Otis of the North Parish of New London, 
and settled as a merchant in Norwich about the year 1750. 

"Trumble, Fitch & Trumble,"* was a business firm in Norwich, formed 
in 17G3. The partners were Jonathan Trumbull, his son Joseph, and Col. 
Eleazar Fitch, all of Lebanon. The elder branches of the firm had for 
several years transacted business in Norwich. The junior partner, Joseph 
Trumbull, who had been to England and established business relations 
with several mercantile houses in London, was now the resident acting 
partner in the concern. This firm had the agency of vessels trading at 
Barbadoes, Ireland, Liverpool, and London. A series of heavy losses at 
sea, not only in the mercantile line, but in the whaling business, upon 
which they had entered, caused the failure of the house in the course of a 
few years, but the business was continued, though within a narrower com- 
pass, until the war for liberty broke up all regular commerce and called 
upon the two Trumbulls to devote their energies to the service of their 
country. In that conflict Col. Fitch disagreed both in opinion and action 
with his former partners. He espoused the royal cause, and became a 
refugee. 

In 1774, the three men who paid the highest tax in Chelsea were Jere- 
miah Clement, Joseph Howland, and William Coit. Thomas Coit was 
also for many years engaged in trade. Jedidiah and Andrew Huntington 
were men of business in the town-plot. . Dudley Woodbridge from Ston- 
ington had opened a store in the same quarter. Hubbards & Greene, 
commission merchants of Boston, had a branch of their business in Nor- 
wich. In 1766, the "London Packet" was advertised to sail from Nor- 
wich to England. 

* Investigations made by Joseph Trumbull while in England, led to a change in the 
spelling of tlie last syllable of the family name. The revised form was adopted about 
the year 1766, before the elder Trumbull became Governor. 

Stuart's Life of Trumbull, p. 118. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. ol3 

Of the French war with respect to its influence upon the town, nothing 
is found on record but in the way of reference and hint. Between 1755 
and 1763, in the registry of deaths, in accounts and settlements of estates, 
occasional allusions may be noticed to one who went to the wars, or died 
in battle, or of camp-fever. The preamble to the will of Joseph Johnson 
of Preston, made June, 1757, and proved May, 1758, has this passage: 
"Being called by Providence to go forth against the common enemy and 
to jeopard my life upon the high places of the field," «S:c. We infer at 
once that such persons were victims of the frontier service. 

Again, sloops and schooners left the port with provisions, bound to 
Albany, and the evidence is presumptive that they carried supplies to the 
New England forces in the field. 

It was an exciting period. The whole country resounded with tidings 
of Indian depredations and rumors of savage cruelty. The few newspa- 
pers of the day were filled with thick coming reports of the barbarities 
practiced in the pioneer settlements. In western and northern New York 
and through the fertile interior of the Middle States, at that time a vast 
overshadowed wilderness, hordes of Red men, with or without French 
instigators or French leaders, came out of their haunts, with a sudden 
sweep upon villages or single farm-houses, upon men at work or children 
at play, howling as they came, and marking their path with fire and 
slaugliter. New England has no page of its history so stained with the 
slaughter of the helpless as this. Philip's war had a more limited sphere, 
made fewer victims, and displayed less ferocity. 

Norwich, remote from the scenes of strife and danger, sitting amid her 
hills, could only sympathize with her frontier kindred in their perils, and 
send her quotas to their defence. This they Avere often called to do, and 
we may be sure that prayers and tears were mingled in many families at 
those times, when such notes as the following were registered in almanacs 
or private diaries: "Ten stout men drawn for Canada." "Six of our 
neighbors pressed to go against the Indians." "More soldiers to be 
raised," &c. 

In 1750, four regiments were raised in Connecticut for frontier service ; 
and one of these under Col. Nathan AVhiting was drawn chiefly from New 
London county. In 1758, Col. Samuel Coit commanded a regiment raised 
in Norwich and its neighborhood, which wintered at Fort Edward. Col. 
Eleazar Fitch, Col. William Whiting, Capt. Robert Denison and Capt. 
Samuel Mott served in these campaigns against the French. Dr. Jona- 
than Marsh was with the northern army as a surgeon in 1756 and 1757, 
and Dr. Philip Turner in 1758. 

Elijah Huntington (son of Isaac, one of the estimable recorders of 
Norwich,) served in the frontier army through three campaigns, 1758-00 
and was in the service when Canada surrendered to General Amherst. 



314 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The scanty records of the time leave it out of our power to enter into 
details, or enlarge this slender list of individuals. 

In 1761, according to a certified list of Joseph Hull, the collector of the 
royal customs at New London, the whole number of vessels sailing from 
Connecticut district was forty-five. Only one of these was over GO tons 
burden, viz., the brigantine Mermaid, 68 tons. Four were armed. The 
■whole amount of tonnage, 1668 ; number of men employed, 387 ; number 
of guns, 40. 

This comprised at that period the whole shipping of Connecticut. After 
the peace of 1763, there was a great increase of trade. Fishing and trad- 
ing vessels of small capacity and light draft, but pliant and sea-worthy, 
continued to multiply and keep all the northern coast lively with their 
enterprise, till suddenly checked by the Revolutionary war. 

Two of the earliest grave-stone memorials within the bounds of Chelsea 
perpetuate the names of ship-masters. One of these was erected in mem- 
ory of Capt. John Culver, who died in 1757, at the age of 60, and was 
interred in the Episcopal Church-yard ; the other is in remembrance of 
Capt. Daniel Tracy, Avhose death occurred in 1760, in the 52d year of his 
age. Capt. Tracy was interred in the Society burial-place, which was 
opened in J 755. Earlier than this, no interments appear to have been 
made at the Landing. The oldest grave-stone that has been found in 
Chelsea, bearing the name of a man of mature age, is one in this ceme- 
tery that points out the resting-place of William Lanman, the young mer- 
chant heretofore mentioned, "who," according to the record, "lived a sober, 
virtuous life, and died in hope of a happy immortality," in the 30th year 
of his age, 1756. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The New Light Excitement. Separatist Churches. 

Dr. Lord was considered an earnest evangelical preacher, and his 
ministry was eminently useful and successful. His style of delivery was 
impressive. One of his contemporaries said that "he seemed to have aa 
inexhaustible fund of proper words, pointed sense, and devout aftections." 
When he settled in 1717, there were about thirty male members in the 
church, and as many females. In the first fifty years of his ministry, 330 
were admitted. 

"When I first came here," said Dr. Lord, speaking of his congregation, 
"there was a beautiful sight of venerable aged fathers, and many of them 
appearing much of the riglit Puritan stamp. — the hoary head found in the 
way of righteousness."* 

At the time of his settlement the whole town was but one parish. 
Long before the end of his pastorate, it comprised eight societies, with 
each its church and minister, of the Congregational order, also five socie- 
ties of Separatists, and an Episcopal organization. 

In 1721 there was a revival in his church, coincident with one in Wind- 
ham, ten miles distant, under the ministry of Mr. Samuel Whiting, who 
admitted eighty persons to church membership in six months.f The era 
of revivals had not then commenced, which made the interest manifested 
in these two churches the more worthy of note. But these examples 
were not diffusive ; and for many years all New England seemed sunk 
into worldliness and formality, exhibiting no spiritual growth, and little if 
any fervent religious emotion. 

In the midst of this general declension, the only hopeful sign of which 
seemed to be that Christians were aware of it and deplored it as a calam- 
ity, a wonderful manifestation of spiritual activity was suddenly developed 
in Northampton, in connection with the preaching of the Rev. Jonathan 
Edwards. It began in 1733, and continued for two or three years. In 
the spring of 1735 it was estimated that in Northampton alone there were 
thirty conversions in a week for six wee&.s in succession. 

* Half century Sermon. 

t Backus' Church History. Trumbull's Conn., Vol. 2. 



316 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Mr. Lord of Norwich and Mr. Owen of Groton were so deeply inter- 
ested in the reports of this work, that they made a journey to Noi-thamp- 
ton in order to Avitness its effects and obtain from Mr. Edwards himself an 
account of its beginning and progress. They returned declaring that the 
half had not been told them. Their report and the increased energy of 
their subsequent ministrations had an awakening influence upon their own 
people, which was communicated to other churches in the neighborhood. 

In 1740 the flame burst forth afresh, and the way being in some degree 
prepared, not a few churches only, but hundreds, were aroused and vivi- 
fied, brightened as it were with a new light, and awakened to a new life, 
so that this period is distinctively called the period of the New Light 
excitement, or Great Awakening. In the three churches of Norwich the 
work began early, and soon became deep, strong, and enthusiastic in its 
exhibitions. Lebanon, Windham, Canterbury, New London, Groton, 
Stonington, and in fact all the eastern towns of the colony, were pervaded 
with the new light and exalted into a state of gospel fervor. The Rev. 
Mr. Tennent, celebrated as an evangelist, Dr. Wheelock of Lebanon, Mr- 
Parsons of Lyme, Mr. Pomeroy, Mr. Davenport, and other fervid exhort- 
ers of the day, went from place to place, preaching with great power, and 
every where breaking up the torj^id surface of society with the hammer, 
fii-e, and two-edged sword of the gospel. 

The great success of these eminent men led many other ministers into 
a course of itinerant and often erratic service. In Norwich, as well as in 
most other places where conversions were numerous, the beauty of the 
work was marred by gross irregularities. Outcries, ecstacies, and some 
instances of infuriated zeal were exhibited, which seem to have had an 
eflfect in cooling the ardor of Mr. Lord, deadening his sympathy for the 
enthusiasts, and keeping him in a conservative position. 

The Rev. Isaac Backus, one of the converts of this period, who after- 
wards seceded from Mr. Lord's church, observes : 

" The work was so powerful, and people in general so ignorant, that they had little 
government of their passions. Many cried out and fell down in meetings." 

In addition to these shoutings and bodily writhings, which rendered the 
meetings, to say the least, disorderly, many of the converts displayed in 
their harangues a self-confident boasting of their own state and a censori- 
ous judgment of others, that grieved and offended the less excited part of 
the community. The old meeting-house on the hill, then somewhat dilap- 
idated, and soon to give way to a successor, witnessed some transcendent 
exhibitions of that mingling of earth and heaven, of the fresh regenera- 
tive power of the gospel with the extravagance of fanaticism, that are too 
often displayed in times of religious excitement.* 

* Hovey's Life of Backus, p. 37. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 317 

The clergy, as a bodj^, frowned upon all bodily transports and ranting 
exhortations, and some of them carried their disgust so far as to condemn 
the revival itself The Legislature deemed it necessary for the civil au- 
thority to interfere and take cognizance of these irregularities. An act 
was passed in May, 1742, restricting ministers to their own pulpits, and 
interdicting all itinerant preaching, as well as the public teachings of lay- 
men. These restrictions were regarded by those against whom they were 
directed as intolerant, and instead of repressing disorders, they roused the 
enthusiasm of the zealots to a fiercer flame. 

Notwithstanding all these drawbacks, the deep spiritual benefits of the 
revival were perceived by the wase and good, and its purifying, renovating 
influence acknowledged with devout thanksgiving. In June, 1743, twelve 
ministers, belonging to the counties of New London and Windham, con- 
vened at Norwich for the purpose of acknowledging the goodness of God 
in this revival, and in a public declaration gave their testimony in its 
favor, "as a great and glorious work of divine grace, and a great reforma- 
tion of religion." Among the signers to this document were three minis- 
ters of Norwich, Benjamin Lord, Daniel Kirtland, and Jabez Wight. 

These acknovv'ledgments were not, however, designed to sanction the 
errors connected with the revival, and the civil authority was generally 
allowed to take its course in dealing with those who violated the statute, 
or were transported by excessive zeal beyond the bounds of charity and 
decorum. Fines, seizures and imprisonments were indeed of frequent 
occurrence, to be remembered only with grief and condemnation, but in 
most instances the indictment was made under the old laws against non- 
payment of rates and non-attendance upon the worship of the Sabbath. 
It was just a continuation of the old list of actions, with perhaps a sharper 
look-out and a more rigorous enforcement of the letter of the law on the 
part of officials. 

It does not appear that any arrests were made or fines imposed in Nor- 
wich, for lay-preaching, or attendance on Separate meetings, unless those 
meetings were tumultuous and disorderly and the language used by the 
exhorters unjustifiable and slanderous. Doubtless, however, both parties 
were in fault. Men wei'e sometimes prosecuted with great pertinacity for 
slight offences, but on the other hand the language of denunciation was 
used to a revolting extent, accompanied with great contempt of the legal 
authorities. 

An instance of this violent fanaticism which occurred in January, 1742, 
and was established by the testimony of three witnesses, is found recorded 
among the papers left by Dr. Lord. A fierce exhorter, in the midst of 
his convulsions, using terms the most baneful and appalling in the lan- 
guage, expressed the delight it would give him to witness the everlasting 
destruction of certain persons whom he mentioned by name. At the same 



318 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

time he called upon God to witness that he was speaking under the influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Lord appends to this evidence the remark 
that at these meetings "such kind of dreadful expressions" were often 
used. These performances excuse in some degree the rigors of ecclesi- 
astical judgment, and almost justify the interference of the magistrate. 

It is well known that the New Lights were all addicted to strange tones 
and violent gesticulations. With coats off and arms extended, they pre- 
pared themselves for a word of exhortation ; not thinking themselves suc- 
cessful unless they could arouse their audience to shouts, tears, ecstacies, 
and tremblings, ending in exhaustion. When Mr. Parsons preached in 
1741, one of his awakening sermons in the parish of New Concord, where 
Mr. Throop was the minister, it is said, "a great number were in tears, 
and some cried out ; some fainted away, and one or two raged."* 

The most important point upon which the two parties disagreed related 
to the qualifications necessary for the admission of church-members. The 
New Light party insisted on a satisfactory relation of experience, or a 
declaration of what faith had wrought in the soul. But Mr. Lord and a 
majority of the church stood by the ancient practice in this respect, and 
in January, 1745, passed the following vote: 

" Though it is esteemed a desirable thing that persons who come into full commun- 
ion offer some publick relation of their experience ; yet wo do not judge or hold it a 
term of communion. "t 

This vote expresses the current sentiment of the churches previous to 
that period, and at the time of its adoption. A relation of internal exer- 
cises had not generally been required. 

It has been observed that at the time of Mr. Lord's ordination, the 
church refused to receive the Saybrook Platform, and assumed a position 
of Congregational independence. After a few years the pastor expressed 
a wish to join the Association of New London county, if it could be done 
without compromising the independence of the church and expressly con- 
senting to the New Platform as a model of discipline. J 

On these "cautionary grounds" the church acceded to his request, and 

* Deuison's Notes on the Baptists. 

t Mr. Lord was himself decidedly averse to making a relation of experience a term 
of communion. His reasoning was to this effect : 

" 'Ihe church has no authori y to make rules and terms of admission to bind tho 
conscience, i)ut only to follow the plain directions of tlic word of God ; and if there is 
any scriptural law for such a terra of communion to be imposed upon the conscience, 
where is it 1 For where there is no law there is no transgression, and therefore to be 
no imposition." 

J " 1 have often thought," he said, " that it was a damage to me to live as one alone 
opon the earth, and prevented that improvement I might make by enjoying their 
•ocicty." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 319 

a proposition of fellowship, with this reserve, was made to the Associa- 
tion of New London county, convened at Preston, Nov. 10, 1724, and 
acted upon as follows : 

""Vyiiereas some have questioned whether a minister's attending upon and consent- 
ing to be a member of this Association has not been looked upon by the Association 
as his giving his consent to the articles of Church discipline established by this Colony 
and as binding liim and his church to be governed by them : 

" Resolved that it never has been nor is it now so esteemed by the Association." 

After the year 1741, one of the objections brought against Mr. Lord by 
the New Light brethren was, that he and his party in the church had gone 
into fellowship with the Association, and thus abandoned the old platform 
for the new. This objection does not appear to have been valid, no evi- 
dence appearing that either pastor or church had ever consented to the 
Saybrook Platform. The last item on record respecting it is a protest of 
the church, Feb. 20, 1744-5, against Mr. Lord's attending the meetings 
of the Association in future, and a recall of their former consent in this 
particular, lest his acting and voting with them should be construed into a 
concurrence with their principles.* At the same time they re-affirmed 
their attachment to the old Platform of the Fathers of 1648, "not only 
in respect to doctrine and truth and form of covenant, but in respect of 
order and exercise of church discipline." 

Feb. 19, 1745, we first become cognizant that a separation had taken 
place in Mr. Lord's church. The leaders in this movement were Hufh 
Calkins and Jedidiah Hide ; and the first Separate meetings were held at 
the house of the former, near Yantic bridge at the west end of the town- 
plot. A committee was appointed at that date to inquire into the reasons 
of their separation, and endeavor to bring them back to the church. 

Li July, thirteen members were cited to appear and answer for their 
continued withdrawal from the regular meetings and communion of the 
church, and for attending a Separate meeting on the Sabbath. Various 
comniittess were appointed, and private conferences held with the seceding 
members. Sume of them declined all discussion, but others frankly stated 
the grounds of their dissatisfaction. 

"Better edilication," or "the gospel better preached elsewhere," was the 
prevalent reason given. 

"Not making regeneration the only term of comniunion."t "Opening 

* Backus in his Church History asserts that in 1744 Mr. Lord openly declared his 
attachmont to the Saybrook Platform, and gives this as the chief cause of the Separa- 
tion. It was also stated as one of the reasons of dissent by a suspended member in 
1758, tliat the church had gone off from the Old Plalfhrm, tiiat is, of 1648. The rec- 
ords of the church, iiowcver, do not afford any evidence of this change. 

t Jedidiah Hyde's objection. 



320 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

the door too wide, letting in all sorts of persons, without giving any evi- 
dence at all of their faith in Christ and repentance towards God." 

Here lay the strong point of the dissenters. It was in fact the only 
doctrinal point of any importance at issue. The practice of the church 
had been lax in the admission of members, and an invigorating change in 
this respect was in the end a beneficial result of the schism. When this, 
which seems to have been the special object of their mission, was accom- 
plished, the Separate churches passed away. 

At a later date, when these seceding societies had been organized and 
their doctrines and practice had been digested and settled, the causes of 
dissatisfaction were thus stated : 

1 . Neglect of church discipline. 

2. Coldness and want of application in preaching. 

3. The qualifications necessary to church membership. 

4. Private brethren being debarred the privilege of exhortation and prayer. 

5. The laws of the state. 

The complaints specially preferred against Mr. Lord were mostly crude, 
trifling, and exceptional: "Not speaking up for that which is good;" "not 
praying for their meetings;" "not a friend to lively preaching and preach- 
ers."* 

This last objection might be a fault or a virtue, according to the mean- 
ing attached to the term lively. It is evident that Mr. Lord and his party 
understood by it that passionate, denunciatory and discursive style of 
exhortation, accompanied with bodily seizures and excesses, which was 
common in the New Light meetings ; and entertaining this view of lively 
preaching, it is not surprising that they were among its opponents.f 

"Oct. 17, 1745. The Church voted all the reasons insufficient, and the Separation 
uncharitable and unwarrantable ; an offence to Christ the Head of the Church, and a 
disorderly walking." 



* An error has been circulated to some considerable extent, that Dr. Lord was un- 
friendly "to lowly preaching and preachers," — the word loivly being explained to mean 
" the preaching of uneducated men and laymen." See Notes on the Baptists of Nor- 
wich, by Rev. F. Denison, p. 21, and Uovey's Memoir of the Life and Times of Rev. 
Isaac Backus, p. 43. This has all originated from a mis-reading of the MS. record, 
where the word, however, is lively, and not loivly. The error in this case is not of mo- 
ment, since doubtless no injustice is do-ne to the reverend pastor, in attributing to him 
a want of sympathy with an uncommissioned, unlearned ministry ; but it sliows the 
necessity of care and caution in transcribing MS. documents, as the mistake of a word 
may cast upon character a stigma wholly unmerited. 

t Rev. Jacob Elliot of Lebanon (Goshen Society) in his Almanac Diary notices a 
visit that he had from a party of New Lights who came to deal with him for his oppo- 
sition to the work. The complaints they urged against him were chiefly these : unapt- 
aess to teach, and opening his eyes in prayer. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 321 

The thirteen offending members were subsequently all suspended from 
the church. They were : 

Huffh Calkins. James Backus. 

Jedidiah Hyde. Isaac Backus. 

William Lathrop. John Leffingwell, Jr./ 

Samuel Leffingwell. - Daniel Chppman. '' 
Joseph Griswold. Phebe, wife of Hugh Calkins. 

John Smith. Lydia, wife of Joseph Kelley. 

Widow Elizabeth Backus. 

Mary, wife of William Lothrop, and Anne Hough, were subsequently 
suspended. 

Dea. Ilezekiah Huntington was also a disciple of the New Light, but it 
does not appear that he withdrew from the church, or was under censure. 
Backus says of him, " Huntington had been greatly engaged in the reform- 
ation, and continued stedfast therein all his days." 

It was during the first four or five days of August, 1745, that White- 
field was first in Norwich, tarrying probably but a few hours. He held a 
great Indian meeting at Mohegan, and perhaps spent a day with Mr. 
Jewett of the North Pai'ish, and was at New London Aug. 8th. A reso- 
lution had been passed by the General Association of Connecticut, the 
June preceding his visit, advising the clergy not to invite him to their 
pulpits, and the people not to attend on his ministrations. It is doubtful, 
therefore, whether he preached at this time in Norwich ; if he did, it was 
probably in the open air, or among the New Lights. 

The Separatists soon began to gather into churches. At Bean Hill 
they erected a plain but respectable house of worship. It had no spire, 
no bell, nor pews, but was furnished with a pulpit and comfortable seats. 
The church was organized with thirty male members, and Jedidiah Hide 
ordained their minister, Oct. 30, 1747. 

Thomas Denison was ordained at Norwich Farms, Oct. 29, 1747. A 
Separate Church was formed at Newent in 1750, with seven members or 
pillars, and Jeremiah Tracy, one of the seven, chosen to preach and ad- 
minister the ordinances to them, — a work which the regular Newent 
church, in their records, solemnly declare that they believe the Lord had 
not called him to do. Mr. Willoughby was afterwards their minister, but 
the zeal of the leaders soon declined, and the congregation gradually fell 
away. 

In Long Society, Jonathan Story was ordained by the Separates, May 
20, 1752. Meetings were held in that society, but it is not known that a 
church was organized. 

In the society of New Concord, where Mr. Throop was pastor, no 
church was formed, but a Separate meeting was sustained for scvera' 
21 



322 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

years, which became the seed from whence a Baptist church ultimately 
originated. 

Thus it appears that the Separatists gathered five distinct meetings or 
congregations within the nine-miles-square : at Norwich Town, Franklin, 
Lisbon, Bozrah, and Long Society. The two last were soon extinct, hav- 
ing probably no church organization. The whole eastern part of Con- 
necticut shared in the seceding movement, and twenty or thirty churches 
were organized. 

The following memoranda relating to the Bean Hill Separatists are 
taken from a paper on file among the records of the First Congregational 
Church : 

1745. Feb. 10. Began at Hugh Calkins the first Separation. 
1747. Oct. 30. Mr. Hide was ordained. 
1757. Sept. 22. Mr. Hide was deposed. 
1759. Aug. 17. Mr. John Fuller was ordained. 
1762. Dec. 22. Mr. Reynolds was ordained. 

1766. Nov. 8. Mr. Reynolds embraced the Baptist principles and was baptized. 
1772. June 9. Last time of his Communion. 

Met and had meetings till 15 March, 1788, when they met in the character of Uni- 
Tcrsalists. 

Mr. Fuller had been ordained at Lyme, Dec. 25, 1747. The service 
at Bean Hill in 1759 must therefore have been of the nature of an instal- 
lation. He was an excellent man and a good preacher, but remained in 
Norwich only two or three years, and then became pastor of a church in 
Plainfield, where he died in 1777. Under the changeful teachings of his 
successor, Mr. Reynolds, the Bean Hill church languished, fainted, and 
expired. 

Its most flourishing period was from 1750 to 1754 inclusive. The fol- 
lowing extracts from the journal of Mr. Isaac Backus, one of the thirteen 
seceders from Dr. Lord's church, refer to this Bean HiU meeting : 

Jan. 17, 1753. I would here review a little what I have seen at Norwich. This last 
year the enemies have done more at haling the saints to prison for rates, than they have 
done ever before since our Separation ; but it is remarkably evident that, as it was with 
Israel, so it has been here : " The more they oppressed them, the more they grew." 
This congregation, I think, is nearly as large again as it was the last time I was here 
before. 

Sept. 15, 1754. Preached both parts of the day in brother Hide's meeting-house, to 
the largest auditory which I ever saw there. t 

* Bliss Willoughby, one of the Separate Teachers, is supposed to have occupied 
the pulpit for a short time between Mr. Hide's deposition and Mr. Fuller's service. 

t Memoir of the Life and Times of Rev. Isaac Backus, A. M. By Alvah Hovey, 
D. D. Boston, 1858. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 323 

As the Separate churches were not recognized by the Legislature, the 
members were still taxed to support their former ministers, and this led to 
various instances of petty persecution and private suffering, imprisonment 
and distraining of goods, the memory of which is still hoarded and per- 
haps aggravated by ti-adition. At Norwich the number of Separates was 
considerable, and their influence still greater, so that at one period they 
out-voted the standing regular church, and declared that they would not 
support a minister by a tax. The other party appealed to the Legisla- 
ture, and obtained an order to enforce the rates. Violent commotions 
were the consequence, and it is said that no less than forty persons were 
imprisoned on this account in one season. There was perhaps no town in 
the colony where the conflict between the standing order, supported by the 
civil authority, and the enthusiasts, was more vehement and protracted 
than at Norwich. 

An ajTs-ravated case of this kind was that of the widow Elizabeth 
Backus, one of the first company of seceders, and a zealous partizan of 
the cause. Her son had previously suffered an imprisonment of twenty 
days, and herself, on a dark night in October, 1752, about nine o'clock, 
was seized by the collector, carried to jail, and kept there thirteen days. 
Her tax was then paid, but without her consent, by her son-in-law. Gen. 
Jabez Huntington. At a subsequent period, her grandson. Gen. Jedidiah 
Huntington, pledged himself to pay her rates annually, that the venerable 
lady might not be disturbed by any solicitations for that purpose. This 
lady was mother of the Rev. Isaac Backus, of Middleborough, Mass., 
who, in his Church History, has preserved a letter from her, giving an 
account of her imprisonment, and the abundant measure of divine support 
that she received under it. She states that Mr. Griswold, deacon of the 
Separate Church, and Messrs. Hill, Sabin and Grover, were imprisoned at 
the same time. Mr. Backus adds, " They went on in such ways for about 
eight years, until the spiritual weapons of truth and love vanquished those 
carnal weapons, which have not been so used in Norwich since." 

The last instance of distrainment that is remembered to have taken 
place, was in the case of Mr. Ezekiel Barrett, who died in 1838, at the 
age of ninety-five. He had refused to pay the usual rates, and was 
arrested at the court-house, just at the close of a town meeting. He made 
an obstinate resistance, and it took the constable and six other men to 
convey him to jail. He was considerably bruised in the scuffle, and by 
being dragged upon the frozen ground. After a week's imprisonment, he 
gave his note for the sum demanded, and was released. Subsequently he 
refused to pay the note, alleging that it was forced from him by oppres- 
sion. It was sued at law, and his cow taken and sold at the post to pay 
the rate and costs. 

It is undoubtedly this instance which has given rise to the reports that 



324 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

these taxes were always rigorously exacted, even to the seizure of the 
poor man's cow and his last bushel of grain. The cases above mentioned 
are believed to be the only ones that occurred in which great severity was 
exercised. Dr. Lord always treated the Separatists with kindness and 
respect, and this led the way to the restoration of a considerable number 
of them to his church. 

Before the final extinction of the Separate church, a small party seceded 
from these seceders, and embraced the doctrine of the universal salvation 
of all mankind, or the final restoration of all to a state of happiness. They 
held their meetings in the large front kitchen of the house then occupied 
by Mr. Ebenezer Grover, and still known as the old Grover house. Here 
Mr. Hide used occasionally to hold meetings, and after him Mr. Gamaliel 
Reynolds. The latter was a stone-mason by trade, a man of no educa- 
tion, but of considerable native talent. He was one of that original class 
of men, — keen, witty, and observing; famed for humorous sallies, and 
those apt remarks that are treasured up and retailed as sayings, of which 
the present day seems to exhibit fewer specimens than of yore. Norwich 
in former days possessed many of these original characters, both of the 
whimsical and shrewd species. Mr. Reynolds died May 7, 1805, aged 
eighty-one. 

After the introduction of Universalism into the Separate meetings, a 
considerable number of the members returned to their old home in the 
Congregational church, and were received with cordiality. Among these 
was the venerable Joseph Griswold, deacon of the late Separate church, 
who had been an early and zealous advocate of the New Light, and before 
his suspension had interrupted Mr. Lord in the midst of one of his ser- 
mons, to declare his dissent from something that he said. It was scarcely 
expected that he would ever re-connect himself with his former associates} 
and it created considerable emotion in the meeting-house, when, for the 
first time after his secession, his gray locks were seen in the old man's seat. 
As he was somewhat deaf, he soon afterward asked permission of the young 
pastor to go up the pulpit stairs and lean over the door while he' was preach- 
ing, that he might hear more distinctly. Mr. Strong immediatel}^ invited 
him to take a seat in the pulpit, which he ever afterwards did, when able 
to attend meeting. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Miscellaneous Gatherings. 

The first person Avho set up a chaise in Norwich was one Samuel Brown; 
be was fined for riding in it to meeting. In those simple and severe days, 
the rolling of wheels through the streets was considered a breach of the 
Sabbath. It would undoubtedly have a tendency to attract attention, and 
cause the thoughts to wander from the peculiar duties of the day. If a 
man at the present time should arrive in town on Saturday night in a bal- 
loon, and go to meeting in it on Sunday, it would be a similar case. Brown 
died in 1 804, aged ninety. Col. Simon Lathrop also rode in a chaise at a 
very early period, but his effeminacy in this respect was excused on ac- 
count of the feeble health of his wife. At the period of the revolution, 
only six chaises, or as they are now called, gigs, were owned in the place. 
The owners of these six were, 1st, Gen. Jabez Huntington ; this gig was 
large, low, square-bodied, and studded with brass nails that had square 
and fiat heads, — it was the first in town that had a top which could be 
thrown back. 2d, Col. Hezekiah Huntington. 3d, Dr. Daniel Lathi-op ; 
this was i-egarded as a splendid vehicle, — it had a yellow body, with a red 
moroc'.'o top, and a window upon one side. 4th, Dr. Theophilus Rogers. 
5th, Elijah Backus, Esq. 6th, Nathaniel Backus, Esq., of Chelsea ; this 
afterwards belonged to Capt. Seth Harding. Within the same limits, at a 
later period, between three and four hundred gigs were owned at the same 
time. Probably no town in the Union, of equal size, could turn out as 
many. JNIechanics, farmers, and in general every thriving, well-to-do 
householder, owned a horse and chaise. This species of vehicle has since 
given ])l:ice to the wagon, buggy, and other four-wheeled carriages. 

The visits of the first Governor Trumbull to Norwich were customarily 
made in one of these square-bodied, square-topped, two-wheeled, one- 
hor.-e carriages, almost as substantial in structure as a house. His equi- 
page was well known to the inhabitants, and there was always a great 
running to the doors, and bowings and curtseyings as the grand old chaise 
rolled ,-ieadily along, with the Governor and usually one of his family at 
his >ide, — Madam Trumbull, or a young daughter, for after 1770 he had 
two children : Joseph Trumbull, the young merchant, and Faith, the wife 



326 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

of Jedidiah Huntington, settled in Norwich. They had also other friends 
and relatives in the place, with whom visits were often exchanged. 

This Governor Trumbull was the original '^^ Brother Jonathan" — a 
name casually given by Washington, but which has become the familiar 
pass-word abroad for all Americans. 



The first druggist in Norwich, and probably the first in Connecticut who 
kept any general assortment of medicines for sale, was Dr. Daniel La- 
throp. This gentleman graduated at Yale in 1733, and soon afterward 
went to Europe, where he prosecuted his medical studies in London. On 
bis return, after an absence of several years, he brought with him a large 
quantity of medicines, as well as various other merchantable goods, and 
established himself in business in his native place. His shop was on the 
main street, near his family residence. 

Dr. Lathrop furnished a part of the surgical stores to the northern army 
in the French war. He often received orders from New York. His 
drugs were always of the best kind, well prepared, packed and forwarded 
in the neatest manner. This was the only apothecary's establishment on 
the route from New York to Boston, and of course Dr. Lathrop had a 
great run of custom, often filling orders sent from the distance of a hund- 
red miles in various directions. It is related that in 1749, when a malig- 
nant epidemic was prevailing in several of the western towns of the col- 
ony, the Rev. Mark Leavenworth, pastor of the church in Waterbury, 
incited by the suffering condition of many of his people for want of suit- 
able medicines to arrest the distemper, came to Norwich on horseback to 
obtain a supply, performing the journey hither and back in three days.* 
This fact alone is sufficient to show that no drug-store then existed either 
in New Haven or Hartford, and corroborates the statement often made by 
aged people in Norwich, that Dr. Lathrop's was the first establishment of 
the kind in the colony. 

Joshua Lathrop, a younger brother of Dr. Daniel, after graduating at 
Yale in 1743, became connected with him in business, and no mercantile 
firm in this vicinity had a more solid reputation than the brothers La- 
throp-t They imported not only medicines, but fruits, wines, Eui'opean 
and India goods, directly from England ; one of the firm, or a skillful 
agent, often crossing the ocean to select the stock. After a few years 

* Bronson's History of Waterbury, p. 325. 

t With Dr. Lathrop commenced the change of orthography in the name, wliich soon 
became universal among the descendants of the proprietor Samuel Lothrop. The new 
form will be henceforth used in this work, except when speaking of those early settlers 
that never wrote their names otherwise than with the o. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 327 

they relinquished the trade in miscellanous merchandise, and confined 
themselves in a great measure to the drug business* 

Benedict Arnold, Jr., and Solomon Smith were apprentices to Dr. La- 
throp at the same pei-iod. Arnold subsequently set up the business in 
New Haven. Smith went to Hartford and established a drug-store in 
connection with Dr. Lathrop, who furnished the first stock. This was in 
1757. 

The following is one of their advertisements : 

"Just imported from Loudon' in the last ship, via New York, and to be sold by 
Lothrop & Smith, at their store in King st. Hartford, Ct. — A large and universal assort- 
ment of medicines, genuine and of the best kind ; together with complete sets of Sur- 
geon's Capital and Pocket instruments ; very neat instruments for drawing teeth, metal 
mortars, small scales and weights ; all sorts of spice and choice Turkey figs ; a variety 
of painter's colours and many other articles. "t 

In 1776 the firm in Norwich was changed from Daniel & Joshua La- 
throp to Lathrops & Coit ; their nephew, Joseph Coit, Jr., having been 
associated with them in business. The younger partner died in 1779, in 
the 30th year of his age, and the former title was resumed.J 

The wife of Dr. Daniel Lathrop was Jerusha, daughter of Governor 
Talcot of Hartford. They had three promising sons, cut down like flowers 
of the field, almost at a single sweep of the scytlie, before the oldest had 
attained the age of four years. This was all their offspring, and the blow 
saddened though it did not embitter the feelings of this benevolent couple. 

Dr. Lathrop died in 1782. Madam Lathrop long survived him, and 
was regarded with universal esteem and veneration. Her death took 
place in 1806. The early childhood of a gifted daughter of Norwich, 
Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, was passed under the roof of this excellent lady. 
Having lost her own children, in their infancy, she lavished all her mater- 
nal affection and fostering care on this child of her heart, who repaid her 
tenderness with filial veneration, and has embalmed her memory in hal- 
lowed verse.§ 

* The invoice of drugs imported by them in one vessel was £8000. It is not prob- 
able however that they had supplies to this amount every year. 

t New London Summary, July 11, 1760. 

Dr. Sylvanus Gardiner of Boston also established a drug-store at Hartford, in con- 
nection with a junior partner, in May, 1757. The two firms were Lothrop & Smith, 
King St.; Gardiner & Jepson, Queen st. They appear to have been simultaneoua 
establishments, and neither can claim precedence of the other. 

t He left a wife and infant daughter ; the latter married Nathaniel Ilowland. 

^ Ezekiel Huntley and Zerviah Wentworth, both of Norwich, were married Nov. 28, 
1790. Lydia, their daughter and only child, was born Sept. 1, 1791, while her parents 
were living under the same roof witli Madam Lathrop. She was married to Charles 
Sigourney of Hartford, June 16, 1819. 



328 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The will of Dr. Daniel Lathrop contained a bequest of £500 sterling 
to Yale College, £500 to the town of Norwich for the support of a free 
Grammar School, and £500 also to the First Ecclesiastical Society of the 
town to assist in supporting the ministry. 

Daniel and Joshua Lathrop were of the fourth generation of the name 
in Norwich, — sons of Thomas Lathrop, who died May 25, 1774, aged 
ninety-three. They had one sister, who married Joseph Coit of New 
London. 

Joseph and Lydia (Lathrop) Coit were the parents of Dr. Joseph Coit, 
before mentioned; of Thomas Coit, merchant of Norwich and Canterbury; 
of the late Daniel L. Coit of Norwich, and of the Hon. Joshua Coit of 
New London. They had also three daughters, who in due season were 
transferred to Norwich as the wives of William Hubbard, Chri stophe r 
Leffingwell, and Andrew Huntington. 

The removal of these daughters to Norwich, the native place of their 
mother, and the increasing hazards of the seaboard in those days of alarm 
and invasion, ultimately drew Mr. Coit and most of the family hither. 

Capt. Joseph Coit, the father, died at Norwich, 27th of April, 1787, in 
the ninetieth year of his age. Joshua, the youngest son, remained in 
New London, and was a member of Congress from the year 1793 to his 
death in 1798. 



Africans. The colored population of Norwich was more numerous 
than in most northern towns. It consisted partly of free blacks, accruing 
from previous occasional manumissions, and partly of persons still held in 
servitude and bought and sold as property. From bills of sale that are 
extant, and from the valuation made in inventories, we learn that in the 
early part of the century the price for slaves ranged from 60s. to £30. 
After this the value increased, and the best were rated at £100. The 
Rev. "William Hart of Saybrook in 1749 purchased a negro boy of Jabez 
Huntington of Norwich, for whom he paid £290, old tenor ; but this was 
a depreciated currency, probably not worth more than a fifth of its nom- 
inal value in silver coin. At a later period the price of a servant was 
considerably enhanced. 

Captains John and Matthew Perkins, of Hanover Society, had each 
what was called a house-full of slaves. The former, known as "big Cap- 
tain John," died in 17G1. His inventory enumerates his African servants, 
Tamar, Ziba, Jehu, Selah, &c., to the number of fifteen, the best valued 
at £50. Probably no larger number than this could be found in any one 
family in the county. 

Capt. Matthew Perkins was a large landholder, a man of energetic 
character, and like his brother, strong and powerful in frame. " He died 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 329 

[in 1773] from lockjaw caused by a bite on the thumb which he received 
from a young negro shive whom he was chastising for some fauU."* 

It was not until near the era of the Revolution tliat the reasonableness 
and equity of holding the African race in durance began to be questioned 
by the citizens. At length it was whispered about that it Avas inconsistent 
to complain of political oppression, and yet withhold from others the privi- 
leges to which they were entitled ; to fight for liberty, and yet refuse it to 
a portion of the human family. 

Communications on this subject, bold and even eloquent, appeared in 
the newspapers, of which one from the Norwich Packet will serve as a 
specimen : 

July 7, 1774. To all those who call themselves Sons of Liberty in America, Greet- 
ing : 

My Friends. We know in some good measure the inestimable value of liberty. But 
were we once deprived of her, she would then appear much more valuable tlian slie now 
appears. We also see her, standing as it were tiptoe on the highest bough ready for 
flight. Why is she departing? What is it that disturbs her repose '? Surely some- foul 
monster of hideous shape, and hateful kind, opposite in its nature to hers, with all its 
frightful appearances and properties, iron hands and leaden feet, formed to grijje and 
crush, hath intruded itself into her peaceful habitation and ejected her. Surely this 
must be the case, for we know oppositions cannot dwell together. Is it not time, liigh 
time to search for this Achan ? this disturber of Israel 1 High time, I say, to examine 
for the cause of those dark and gloomy appearances that cast a shade over our glory. 
And is not this it ? Are we not guilty of the same crime we impute to others 1 Of 
the same facts that we say are unjust, cruel, arbitrary, despotic, and without law, in 
others'? Paul argued in this manner : — " Thou therefore that teadiest another, teach- 
est thou not thyself ? Tliou that preachcst a man should not steal, dost ihou steal 1 
Thou that makest thy boast of the law, througti breaking the law, dishonorest thou 
God 1 " And may we not use the same mode of argument and say — We that declare 
(and that with much warmth and zeal) it is unjust, cruel, barbarous, unconstitutional, 
and without law, to enslave, do we enslave 9 — Yes, verily we do ? A black cloud witness- 
eth a(jainsl us and our own mouths condemn us 1 How preposterous our conduct ! How 
vain and hypocritical our pretences ! Can we expect to be free, so long as we are de- 
termined to enslave 1 Honesty. 

Under the influence of this new phase of public opinion and individual 
responsibility, several persons voluntarily liberated their slaves and made 
them some compensation for former services. 

"Dec. 1774. Mr. Samuel Gagcr, of Norwich, from a conscientious regard to justice, 
has lately liberaf^d three faitliful slaves, and as a compensation for their services, leased 
them a very valuable farm on very moderate terms. Mr. Jonathan Avery also emau- 
cipated an able industrious negro man, from the same noble principle." 

An act' of the Legislature, prescribing tlie rules and regulations under 
which emancipation .sliould take place, was passed in 1777, and several 

* Perkins' Genealogy, Hist. & Gen. Reg., 14, 114. 



330 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

instances of liberation in accordance with the provisions of this statute* 
are on record at Norwich, — such as: 

"Liberty given by the Select men to Jabez Huntington Esq. to emancipate a negro 
man named Guy, Oct. 2, 1780." 

" Liberty to Col. Joshua Huntington to emancipate his negro servant, Bena, June 
26, 1781." 

In 1784, the State passed an act for the gradual abolition of slavery; 
declaring all born after that period free at twenty-five years of age, and 
allowing masters to emancipate all between twenty-five and forty-five. 

In 1800, forty-seven slaves remained in the State. But in the year 
1848, slavery had entirely disappeared, and was declared by the Legisla- 
ture extinct and forever abolished. 

But whether slaves or freemen, the Africans of Norwich have always 
been treated with forbearance and lenity. They have been particularly 
indulged in their annual elections and trainings. In former times, the 
ceremony of a mock election of a negro governor, created no little excite- 
ment in their ranks. The servants for the time being assumed the relative 
rank and condition of their masters, and were allowed to use the horses 
and many of the military trappings of their owners. Pi'ovisions, decora- 
tions, fruits and liquors were liberally surrendered to them. Great elec- 
tioneering prevailed, parties often ran high, stump harangues were made, 
and a vast deal of ceremony expended in counting the votes, proclaiming 
the result, and inducting the candidate into office, — the whole too often 
terminating in a drunken frolic, if not a fight. 

A very decent grave-stone in the public burial-ground bears this inscrip- 
tion : 

" In memory of Boston Trowtrow, Governor of the African tribe in this town, who 
died 1772, aged 66." 

After the death of this person, Sam HunHton was annually elected to 
this mock dignity for a much greater number of years than his honorable 
namesake and master, Samuel Huntington, Esq., filled the gubernatorial 
chair. It was amusing to see this sham dignitary after his election, riding 

* Capt. William Browne, a noted loyalist of Salem, Mass., connected with the Win- 
throp family of New London, was the proprietor of a large tract of land lying south of 
Colchester, which formed almost a parish of itself, and was called by the owner New 
Salem. It is now in the town of Salem, Ct. A portion of it under cultivation had 
been leased for a term of years, with nine slaves as laborers upon it. When this land 
was confiscated in 1779, on account of the toryism of the proprietor, the slaves peti- 
tioned the Legislature, through Benjamin Huntington, the administrator on contiscated 
estates, for their liberty. The petition was not granted, but the slaves had the benefit 
of the new laws regulating emancipation, and it is supposed that they were all set free 
sooner or later. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 381 

through the town on one of his master's horses, adorned with plaited gear, 
his aids on each side, a la militaire, himself puffing and swelling with pom- 
posity, sitting bolt upright, and moving with a slow, majestic pace, as if 
the universe was looking on. When he mounted or dismounted, his aids 
flew to his assistance, holding his bridle, putting his feet into the stirrup, 
and bowing to the ground before him. The Great Mogul, in a triumphal 
procession, never assumed an air of more perfect self-importance than the 
negro Governor at such a time. 

We must not leave this subject without recording the name of Leh Quy, 
a native of Africa, and a trusty continental soldier. He served during 
three years of the war, and was one of the town's quota in 1780 and 
1781. 



Amusements. Elections, training-days and thanksgivings were the cus- 
tomary holidays of New England ; and at these times various athletic 
exercises gave vent to the restless spirits of an active and energetic race. 
The sports of men and boys were of a boisterous character. Shooting at 
marks, horse-racing, wrestling, running, leaping, ball-playing, were favorite 
amusements. 

The annual Thanksgiving was a day of great hilarity, although its time- 
honored essential characteristic was a sermon. A peculiar adjunct of this 
festival in Norwich was a barrel bonfire. A lofty pole was erected, around 
which a pyramid of old barrels was arranged, — large at the platform, but 
a single barrel well tarred forming the apex. The burning of this pile 
constituted the revelry or triumphant part of the entertainment, and was 
considered by the young as indispensable to a finished Thanksgiving. 
When built upon the plain, the wliole valley was lighted up by the blaze, 
like a regal saloon : and when upon a height, tlie column of flame sent 
forth a flood of light over woods and vales, houses and streams below, 
producing a truly picturesque effect. 

No jovial excursions during the year wei'e so common as sleighing par- 
ties. The snow-season was expected to bring with it leisure and merri- 
ment. The sleighs were broad and roomy, with straight, perpendicular 
sides, and a sharp point ; the driver usually standing erect. Plaid wool- 
len coverlids performed the part of buffalo-robes. The place of enter- 
tainment was from five to fifteen miles from home ; several sleighs were 
often near together on the road ; passing each other, exchanging shouts, 
and light hilarious greetings, or perchance bandying snow-balls as they 
passed. 

In ante-revolutionary times, the half-way houses between Norwich and 
New London, — Raymond's, Bradford's, Ilaughton's, — were often the ter- 
minus of these excursions. In later days the Hyde tavern in Franklin 



832 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 



was a chosen resort, and rhymes were made and sung in honor of its 
festivities. 

" What pleasure is greatest ? My fancy decides, 
A party select and a sleigh-ride to Hyde's." 

These pastimes were joyous, and often noisy and dashing, but seldom 
coarse or rude. Our New England towns have had no rowdy period ; no 
such boorish, half-barbaric season as is almost a necessity to the emigrants 
who push into the forests of the far West, and begin life as hunters and 
pioneers. 

In Norwich there was perhaps a tendency to the other extreme, — an 
epicurean fancy savoring of their English ancestry. Private parties on a 
hospitable scale were frequent, and references have been found to trlpe- 
suppers and turtle-entertainments where friends and neighbors were splen- 
didly regaled a hundred years ago.* 

Wedding festivities were usually continued through the day and eve- 
ning, and not unfrequently prolonged for two or three days. A news- 
paper has preserved the statistics of one of these hymeneal entertain- 
ments, and though the scene was not at Norwich, it was so near that we 
may be quite sure many of its upper class of fashion and distinction par- 
ticipated in the festival. 

" A great wedding dance took place at New London at the house of Nathaniel Shaw 
Esq. June 12, 1769, the day after the marriage of his son Daniel Shaw and Grace Coit; 
92 gentlemen and ladies attended, and danced 92 jigs, 52 contra-dances, 45 minuets 
and 17 horn-pipes, and retired at 45 minutes past midnight." 

In that middle period between the strict Puritan times and the Revolu- 
tion, dancing was a common diversion of young people. Balls and mid- 
night revels were interdicted ; but neighborly dances, either with or with- 
out a fiddler, often a part of the company singing for the others to dance, 
— contra-dances, reels, or jigs, improvised on some oak floor in kitchen or 
hall, — ending in a treat of nuts, apples, and cider, — these were allowable 
pastimes for the winter evenings. 

Dancing also to a greater extent and with more elaborate di-play was 
permitted, as we have seen, at weddings and thanksgivings, doubtless also 
at other large and ceremonious entertainments, bnt without the objection- 
able accompaniment, except in very rare instances, of late hours. 

An ordination Zia//, strange as it may sound, was allowed in some places 
as a finale to the festivities on the occasion of settling a ministtr; but 
there is no proof that this enormity was ever perpetrated in Norwich. 

* An advertisement of a brown camlet riding-hood lost at a turtle fnloiainmtnt at 
Mr. Matthew Leffingwell's, appears in the Norwicii Packet, August, 1779. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 333 

At the period immediately preceding the Revolution, social intercourse 
was on the most easy and delightful footing, in both divisions of the town. 
Visits were frequent, long, and familiar. The customs, in some re-pects, 
were the reverse of the present. The visit was made, and the visitors 
returned home by daylight. Instead of the lady giving out invitations to 
her guests, the guests sent word to the lady, (all the neighborhood joining 
together on such occasions,) that they would come and spend the after- 
noon with her. 



Fashions. The dress of that middle period can not be eulogized for its 
simplicity or economy. The wardi'obe of the higher circles was rich and 
extravagant, and among the females of all classes there was a passion for 
gathering and hoarding articles of attire beyond what was necessary for 
present use, or even for years ahead. It was an object of ambition to 
have a chest full of linen, a pillow-bier of stockings, and other articles in 
proportion laid by. 

In this connection we present a schedule of the wardrobe of "Widow 
Elizabeth "White of Norwich," as contained in the inventory of her effects, 
taken Aug. 16, 1757. She was a daughter of Samuel Bliss, and relict of 
Daniel White of Middletown. After the death of her husband in 1726 
she returned to Norwich, and there died, July 2, 1757, aged 71. The 
items of jewelry, plate and apparel were circumstantially enumerated, but 
we give them in an abridged form. 

She had gowns of brown duroy, striped stuff, plaid stuff, black silk 
crape, calico, and blue camlet ; a scarlet cloak, blue cloak, satin-flowered 
mantle, and furbelow scarf ; a woollen petticoat with calico border ; a 
camlet riding-hood, long silk hood, velvet hood, white hoods trimmed with 
lace, a silk bonnet, and 19 caps; a cambrick laced handkerchief, silk do., 
linen do., 16 handkerchiefs in all; a muslin laced apron, flowered laced 
apron, green taffety apron, 14 aprons in all; a silver ribband, silver girdle 
and blue girdle ; 4 pieces of flowei-ed satin ; a parcel of crewel ; a women's 
fan : 

Turkey-worked chairs : 

A gold necklace ; death's head gold ring ; plain gold ring ; sett of gold 
sleeve-buttons ; gold locket ; silver hair peg ; silver cloak clasps ; a stone 
button set in silver : 

A large silver tankard ; a silver cup with two handles, do. with one 
handle, and a large silver spoon. 

At the period of this inventory there was still a certain homeliness and 
frugality appai*ent, even in the fashionable attire of the day. But in the 
next generation riclier goods were imported and more splendor was exhib- 
ited. The following is an illustrative instance: 



334 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The daughters of General Jabez Huntington* were sent successively, 
at the ages of fourteen or fifteen years, to finish their education at a 
boarding school in Boston. The lady who kept the establishment was of 
high social standing, and made it a point of taking her pupils often into 
company, that their manners might be formed according to the prevailing 
codes of politeness and etiquette. Of course the wardrobe prepared for 
the young ladies was rich in articles of ornament and display. One of 
the daughters, who had been carefully fitted out with twelve silk gowns, 
had been but a short time in Boston, when her instructress wrote to her 
parents, requesting that another dress should be procured for her, made of 
a certain rich fabric that had recently been imported, in order that her 
appearance in society might be equal to her rank. A thirteenth robe of 
silk of the requisite pattern was therefore immediately procured and for- 
warded. 

Before the Revolution, wigs full and curled, for clergymen and other 
dignitaries, white and powdered, red cloaks or roquelaurs, and buckles or 
bows of ribbon at the knees and in the shoes, were worn by gentlemen. 
Even young boys were often arrayed in cocked hats, small clothes, and 
knee-buckles. 

On ceremonious occasions, if wigs were not worn, gentlemen had their 
hair craped, curled and powdered by barbers. A full dress for gentlemen 
was mostly made of silk, with trimmings of gold and silver lace, the waist- 
coat often richly embroidered. 

Ladies wore trains to their gowns, often quite long, and when they 
walked out they threw the end over the right arm. The foot, when prop- 
erly dressed, displayed a silk stocking, a sharp-toed slipper, often made of 
embroidered satin, and with' a high heel. 

At one period, sharply-gored gowns and cumbrous hoops were in 
fashion. 

Cushions stuffed with wool and covered with silk were used in dressing 
the head, the hair being neatly combed over the cushion.f This mode of 
dressing the hair made a calash necessary instead of a bonnet. This was 
large and wide, a vast receptacle for wind, and an awkward article of 

* Afterwards Mrs. Col. Chester of Wethersfield, and Mrs. Dr. Strong of Norwich ; 
the former born in 1757, the latter in 1760. 

t A rhymester of the day, describing his imaginary love as a lady of fashion, says : 
I mean she should wear 
A crape cushion for hair, 
I wish she might spell 
And read pretty well, 
That my billet she may not mistake ; 
And the skin of my dear 
Be as smooth and as clear 
As chalk-eating can cleverly make. 



HISTORY or NORWICH. 335 

nttire, but often shrouding a health-beaming face in its depth, needing no 
other ornament than its own good-humored smile.* 

Women of mature age wore close linen caps. Parasols and umbrellas 
were unknown or of rare occurrence, but a fan nearly a foot and a half 
in length, and spreading like the train of a peacock, was often carried to 
keep off the sun, as well as to vivify the air. 

At one period, feathers were much worn upon the head, surmounting a 
high turban of gauze or muslin raised on wire and adorned also with rib- 
bons. The wits of Norwich called these young fashionists "the feathered 
race," and accused them of having their heads "martiahzed and cocka- 
tooned." 

A lady in full dress for great occasions displayed a rich brocade with 
open skirt and trail ; front skirt trimmed, an embroidered stomacher and 
full ruffles at the elbows. Hoods and scarfs were of silk. No sumptuary 
laws restrained the feminine taste for rich attire in this colony. 

The satirists of the day decried the prevailing extravagance in dress, 
just as they do at present. They adverted to the costly cloaks, the silk 
gowns, the powder-puffs and cardinals, the silk stockings and other expen- 
sive feet-trappings, and exclaimed, — Great is the prodigality of the times! 
They recalled the days of greater simplicity, when instead of the rich 
cloth roquelaur, even the magistrate and the colonel were satisfied with a 
cloak of brown camlet, lined with green baize, and the greatest lady in 
the land had her riding-hood also of camlet. 

As the great struggle for liberty gradually overshadowed the land, and 
the sacrifices necessary to consummate the revolution began to be appre- 
ciated, a decided change took place in regard to dress, amusements, and 
display. Women discarded all imported ornaments, and arrayed them- 
selves wholly in domestic goods. Fine wool- and choice flax were in 
higher estimation than silks and laces, and the hearts of patriots as well 
as the laudations of the poet were given to beauty in homespun garments. 

Gentlemen also that had been accustomed to appear in society in the 
daintiest costume, following the example first set by the women, discarded 
their shining stocks, their cambric ruffles, silk stockings, silver buckles, and 
other articles of foreign production, and went back to leather shoe-strings, 
cbecked handkerchiefs, and brown homespun cloth. 

* In a Norwich paper of 1780, the Calash and Cushion are thus covertly ridiculed: 
Hail, {jreat Calash ! o'erwhelraing veil. 

By all-indulf^ent heaven, 
To sallow nymphs and maidens stale, 

In sportive kindness given. 

Safe hid beneath thy circling sphere, 

Unseen by mortal eyes, 
The mingled heap of oil and hair 

And wool and powder lies. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
Ministers. Rev. Dr. Lord. Rev. Dr. Strong. 

Dr. Lord preached his half-centuiy sermon Nov. 29, 1767, from 2d 
Peter, 1 : 12-15. He was then seventy-four years of age, and in firm 
health and strength. In the fifty-fourth year of his ministry, he had 
begun to express a wish that a colleague should be provided for him, and 
this request being now reiterated, Mr. Joseph How was procured as an 
assistant. Mr. How was then a tutor in Yale College, but a licensed 
preacher, and possessed of very pleasing oratorical powers. He occupied 
the pulpit alternately with Dr. Lord during a portion of that year and the 
next. Li May, 1773, Mr. How accepted an invitation to settle as pastor 
of the South Church in Boston, and Dr. Lord was left without any regu- 
lar assistant until near the close of 1777, when a new effort was made, 
and Mr. Joseph Strong procured to act as colleague.* 

On the sixty-first anniversary of his ordination, he delivered a second 
retrospective discourse, which was printed and entitled : 

" The Aged Minister's Solemn Appeal to God and serious address to his people." 

In 1781, he favored the congregation with a sixty-fourth annivei'sary 
sermon, but it was not published. After this period, infirmity came fast 
upon him. In his eighty-seventh year his eye-sight failed him, and he 
preached ever afterwards extemporaneously. He however continued to 
write his discourses, keeping his place upon the paper with his left hand, 
and though the lines could not be very straight, and the words frequently 
ran over each other, his grand-daughter Caroline used to study it out, and 
then, read it over slowly and repeatedly to him, until it was sufficiently 
imprinted on his memory to enable him to deliver it with fluency from the 
pulpit. It was observed by his people that the sermons thus preached 
were some of his best; for generally Mr. Lord's style was diffuse and 
somewhat reduplicative, but the difficulty of writing when he had become 
blind led him to think longer and to condense his thoughts into as few 
words as possible. His reasoning powers were even at this age very little 

* Among the disbursements of the society is £3 paid Mr. Russell Hubbard for the 
expense of his journey up country to see Mr. Strong. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 337 

impaired, and to use the language of one of his most intimate friends, 
"his meekness, humility, philanthropy and heavenly -mindedness were 
apparently increased, and he seemed to 

* Stand with his starry pinions on, 
Drcst for the flight, and ready to be gone.' "* 

He resumed his pastoral labors, at intervals, and being assisted up the 
pulpit stairs, graced the public worship, with his venerable presence, by 
the side of his young associate, almost without interruption until his death, 
which took place March 81, 1784, almost sixty-seven years after his ordi- 
nation. He was in the ninetieth year of his age. A contemporary notice 
of his death observes that his last appearance in the sacred desk "was on 
the Thanksgiving subsequent to the restoration of peace to America, — 
seemingly by a special Providence gratified in living to such a memorable 
pei'iod, which he had often expressed his wish to see." 

Dr. Lord was a small man, and in his latter days stooped much, yet his- 
appearance was pleasing and interesting. He had a vivid blue eye, keen, 
yet alluring, and a slow, impressive manner of speaking. His dress was 
neat. He wore a white wig, and showed conspicuous silver buckles at his 
knees and in his shoes. 

Though he lived to old age, his constitution was far from robust, and in 
his early years he was subject to pain and disease. Age, therefore, per-- 
sonified in him, looked still more aged, and no one could approach him 
without being struck with the reverend antiquity of his appearance. His 
intercourse with his people was like that of an affectionate father in his 
family. "I have lived (said he) in their hearts, and they in mine." 

In addition to a sickly frame, he had almost continual sickness in his 
family. His first wife, Ann, daughter of the Rev. Edward Taylor of 
Westfield, to whom he was married in 1720, was confined to the bed six- 
teen years, and eight years of that time was incapable of feeding herself; 
but these dispensations were all sanctified to this good man.f He found 
time to perform well all the regular duties of his ofiice, and in the course 
of his life published eighteen pamphlets, mostly single sermons, delivered 
on special occasions.]: One was an election sermon, 1751 ; two were 
anniversary, three funeral, and four ordination sermons. The others 
were on various subjects. 

* Funeral Sermon by Rev. James Cogswell of Windham. 

t Not the daughter of Mr. Taylor's first wife, Elizabeth Fitch, to whom the Dove 
love-letter was sent, but of Mr. Taylor's second wife, Euth Wyllis of Hartford. It is 
inscribed on I\Irs. Lord's grave-stone, that she died after an illness of sixteen years, 
July 5, 1748, in the 52d year of her age. Dr. Lord's second wife was Elizabeth, relict 
of Henry Tisdalo of Newport, 11. I. The third, Abigail Ilookcr of Hartford. His ■ 
children were all by the first wife. 

t See Spraguc's Am. Pulpit, Vol. 1, 299. 
22 



338 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Dr. Lord had some peculiarities, perhaps more distinctive of the minis- 
ters of that age than of him as an individuah His first prayer at morn- 
ing service on the Sabbath occupied the full run of the hour-glass at his 
side. He followed in his prayers the principal events that had transpired 
in his parish during the week, — deaths, accidents, storms, — and adverted 
to all public events of importance. In war time his supplications and 
thanksgivings were so particular and specific as to give the congregation 
the best information that had been received of the progress of affairs. 
Notes were sent up to the pulpit, not only in cases of sickness and death, 
but by persons departing on a journey or voyage, and also on returning 
from the same. Every thing in those days, either projected or accom- 
plished, seems to have been prayed over.* 

On the 18th of March, 1778, Mr. Joseph Strong was ordained as col- 
league pastor with Dr. Lord. The audience, gathered from all parts of 
the county, was unexampled in point of numbers, and the services were 
unusually solemn. Dr. Lord was eighty-four yeai's of age, venerated and 
beloved by all, but small and frail in appearance, while his colleague, in 
the full glow of youth and health, large and stoutly built, stood over him 
like a sheltering oak. The society committee were a stately group, hon- 
orable both for talents and piety. It consisted of Deacons Simon Tracy 
and Simon Huntington, Captain Chris topher Lefiingwell, Dudley Wood- 
bridge, Esq., and Samuel Huntington, President of the Provincial Con- 
gress. Others who had acted on the committee were Joshua Lathrop, 
Elijah Backus, and Dr. Elisha Tracy. 

Mr. Strong was the son of the Rev. Nathan Strong of Coventry. By 
his mother's side, he was descended from the Williams family, who were 
taken captives by the Indians at Deerfield, in the night of Feb. 28, 1704. 
The general circumstances of this tragedy are well known. The two 
little daughters of Mr. Williams who went into captivity with their father 
were named Eunice and Esther. The former was never redeemed, but 
being adopted into the family of a chief, she became attached to the Indian 
manners and customs, refused to return to her relatives, embraced the 
Roman Catholic religion, and married a chief named Roger Toroso, who 
resided at St. Johns, twenty miles from Montreal. Esther was ransomed 
and returned home with her father. She married the Rev. Mr. Meachum 
of Coventry, and one of her daughters became the wife of the Rev. 
Nathan Strong, who was ordained pastor of a Second Congregational 
Church in Coventry, in 1745, and was the father of the Rev. Nathan 
Strong, D. D., of Hartford, and the Rev. Joseph Strong, D. D., of Nor- 
wich. At the ordination of the latter, the sermon was preached by his 

* It is said that a petition was once sent up to the pulpit for public prayer in behalf 
of a man gone, going, or about to go on a journey to Boston. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 339 

brother, and the charge given by his father. The text was from Isaiah, 
52, 7. " How beautiful," &c. The scene was deeply affecting and im- 
pressive, particularly when the speaker turned to the young candidate and 
said: 

" My dear brother, — I may now address you by that endearing epithet in all its 
senses. We received our being, under God, from the same parents, were educated by 
the same nurturing kindness, have professed obedience to the same glorious Father in 
Heaven, and this day introduces you a brother laborer in the Lord's vineyard. Very 
pleasant hast thou been unto me, my brother, and never was my pleasure greater in 
beholding thee, than on this day's solemnities. Long may your feet be beautiful on 
these mountains of Zion ! The God of heaven bless and preserve thee." 

Nor was the emotion of the audience less intense, when the father of 
the candidate, in solemn and affecting terms, where deep feeling contended 
with ministerial gravity, invested him with the priest's office, and address- 
ing him as a dearly beloved son, charged him to take heed to the ministry 
which he had received, and to serve with his venerable colleague "as a 
son with a father, as a Timothy with Paul the aged." 

At the time of Mr. Strong's settlement, there were two seceding con- 
gregations in the society, considerably numerous, but they soon became 
extinct, and an uncommon degree of peace and unanimity existed in the 
society, during the whole of his prolonged ministry. 

Dr. Strong in person was above the middle size and stature, and he had 
a calm dignity of address which impressed every one with respect. This 
dignity, however, was blended with great kindness and courtesy, and his 
manners, far from inspiring awe, were gentle and attractive. In his latter 
years especially, it was delightful to listen to his conversation, flowing as 
it did in an easy, graceful stream, enlivened with anecdotes and enriched 
with sketches of character, curious incidents, and all the varied stores col- 
lected by an observant mind through long years of experience. 

In the pulpit he was remarkable for the fluency and impressive solem- 
nity of his prayers. The deep tones of his voice, combined with the 
devout humility of his address and the free flow of adoration and praise 
with which he approached the Father of spirits, would hush an audience 
into deep attention, and waft them, as it were, into tl>e immediate presence 
of the Most High. His sermons were short, and copiously illustrated with 
quotations from Scripture, but wanting perhaps in vigorous argument. 
All his ministrations, in fact, were of a soothing and serene nature, not 
penetrating and awakening. 



340 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Fourth Meeting-House. 

This edifice was so long unfinished, meeting with so many obstructions 
in its ascent from the foundation to the belfry, that it is difiicult to date its 
beginning. Its history in brief would be — voted for in 1748, begun in 
1753, completed about 1770, consumed to ashes in 1801. 

The site was at the corner of the Green, under the rocks where the 
present church stands. The following vote seems to indicate the date 
when this spot was selected to receive the new structure : 

10 March, 1752. Voted that all incumbrances be removed from the west side of 
the Meeting House plain under the site of ye Great Rocks by ye Town street, that 
said land may be free for public use. 

The clearing was effected, and the street left open from the green to 
the printing-ofiice. This was public land, and the wall of granite rose up 
grand and imposing by the side of the road, with shrubs and creepers 
hano'ing over and jutting out of the crevices, and with no disfigurations 
of man around the base, except posts and sheds for the convenience of 
those who rode to meeting on the Sabbath. 

This fourth meeting-house of the society is said to have been a square 
building, with a front porch or platform. 

In Society meeting Nov. 2, 1770. 

Voted that a lead weight be attached to the front door of the meeting-house, that it 
may be more conveniently kept closed. 

The interior was furnished with pews, a space in front of the pulpit 
excepted, where were slips for aged people and strangers. Low benches 
were placed in the aisles for children. The front of the pulpit displayed 
in large letters the sacred motto :* 

HOLINESS BECOMETH GOd's HOUSE. 

0# the Sabbath, the deacon, or some one of the church appointed in 
his place, lined the psalm, and the congregation sung in their seats, except 
a few leaders that stepped out in front of the pulpit and faced the audi- 
ence. When choirs Avere first introduced into the Norwich churches, 
which was not long before the Eevolution, many of the older people were 
disturbed at the innovation, and even shocked at the new tunes adopted, 
which, being sung with less quaver ar'^ drawl than formerly, seemed to 
them destitute of unction and saited ou.^ to the dance or drum-beat. 

A town clock was purchased in 1745, and placed in the belfry. Watts' 
version of the Psalms was introduced into the service in 1772, and at the 



* In 1790 the house was repaired and painted anew, and this motto omitted, which 
caused some dissatisfaction. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 341 

same time a large pulpit Bible was purcliaseil. This was saved from the 
flames when the house was burnt in 1801. It is the London edition of 
17G9, containing the Apochrypha, Historical Index, and the Liturgy of 
the Church of England. Dwight's edition of the Psalms was adopted in 
1803. In 1792 the society voted, with only one dissenting voice, to pur- 
chase an organ. This was soon after an organ had been obtained for the 
Episcopal Church at the Landing ; but instrumental music in a Congre- 
gational service was then a rare if not an unknown accompaniment- 
Some difficulty occurred in procuring the instrument, and the project was 
dropped. An organ was not actually introduced into the service until 
1818. 

Rates. The minister's rate was an element of discord in the society. 
The Separatists sounded loud and long upon this string. When therefore 
Dr. Daniel Lathrop in 1782 bequeathed the sum of £500, the interest of 
which was to be expended in the support of the ministry, the society 
determined to take this opportunity to cast off the odious system of rais- 
ing the minister's salary by rates, and establish a fund for that purpose, 
using the Latlirop legacy as a nucleus. A vote to this effect was passed 
April 10, 1783. A subscription paper was drawn up and committed to 
Mr. Jacob Witter, who volunteered his services for the occasion, and by 
personal visits and sohcitation he secured the sum of £2,088 from one 
hundred subscribers. Dr. Joshua Lathrop subscribed £150, Christopher 
Leffingwell £80, and eight others each £50 and £G0. The remainder 
was in smaller sums, but it was stated that all gave freely and even joy- 
fully according to their ability, in the hope of never hearing again of dis- 
traint and seizure for ministerial rates. 

Another step was to induce the pew-holders to relinquish their rights, 
so that the pews might be sold annually, and the avails applied to the 
same object. This was happily accomplished, except in the case of three 
individuals, who obstinately refused to give up their pews, averring that 
if they could not sit in the same place where they had hitherto sat, they 
would not go to meeting. This matter was, however, at length accommo- 
dated, the pews sold, and the fund advantageously employed ; so that a 
sum was annually raised sufficient to discharge all ecclesiastical expenses, 
and the minister's rate tax happily abolished. 

The first annual sale of pews was in 1791. 

Dx\ Strong's salary was never raised above the stipulated sum of $444. 
except for a very few years, when an annual gratuity was added to it, on 
account of the high price of provisions. The financial arrangements at 
his settlement throw some light on the currency of the day. The so«iety 
agreed to give him £300 as a settlement, in three annual payments of 
£100 each; a salary of £100 per annum for the first three years, and 



342 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

after that term, £133.6.8 per annum. This was to be proportioned to 
wheat at 6s. per bushel ; rye at 3s. 6c?. ; Indian corn at 3s. ; pork at S^d. 
per lb.; and the best grass-fed beef at 40s. per cwt. To this salary was 
added twenty five cords of wood annually, to be delivered at his door. 
The regulation of prices, in these tinaes of fluctuating currency, was a 
matter of no small perplexity. For the first payment of Mr. Strong's 
settlement, he received £1200 in bills of credit, as an equivalent for £100. 
In 1779, £2500 in bills was equal to £100 ; and in 1780 he received for 
his salary £7200 — 72 to 1 — being then the proportion between continental 
paper and silver money. 

Excise Money and Parsonage Land. A grant of money derived from 
the Excise duty was made by the Legislature to Chelsea Society in 1764, 
to assist in building their first meeting-house. This was regarded by the 
First Society as a species of favoritism. They claimed that a fair pro- 
portion of the excise tax gathered in the town belonged to them, and 
therefore in 1767, and again in 1769, they memorialized the Legislature 
for an appropriation of a sum similar to that which had been awarded to 
Chelsea for their use. This was not granted. 

Chelsea Society, on the other hand, laid claim to a share of the Parson- 
age land which had been purchased by the town at an early period for the 
benefit of the ministry. This was long a subject of dispute and litigation. 
The parsonage land included the site of the old hill-top church, the jail, 
and the whole range of buildings on the north-west side of the Green. 
The lessees paid a small ground rent to the society. 

In 1799, these lands were adjudicated to the First Society, and the 
occupants relinquished their claims, accepting in lieu thereof, leases for 
999 years, at a penny per acre, if demanded. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Bridges and Feeshets. 

Norwich being surrounded and intersected with rivers aird brooks, 
and peculiarly exposed to accidents and injury from heavy rains and 
spring floods, the subject of bridges becomes unusually prominent in her 
history. Bridges of considerable magnitude over the Yantic, at the west 
end of the settlement, and near the plain, must have been coeval with the 
laying out of the town, and roads could not have been opened and ren- 
dered safe for traveling in any direction without spanning a multitude of 
small streams with some kind of stone-work, or with timber and plank, 
and these perhaps the next spring flood would sweep away. Consequently 
the work of building and repairing bridges was always beginning, ever 
going on, and never completed. 

The earlier bridges were built and kept in order by the inhabitants as 
highway work. In April, 1717, a petition was presented to the General 
Assembly "for assistance in building a cart bridge over Showtucket at 
the falls." It does not appear that any assistance was granted by lottery 
or otherwise, and it is probable that this first bridge over the Shetucket 
was built in the usual way, by a general turn-out of the inhabitants. 

The site of this bridge was just above the plafte where the Quinebaug 
and Shetucket unite. It connected Norwich pi'oper with Newent society, 
in the crotch of the rivers, and the road leading from it over Ox hill was 
the path by which the early inhabitants of Newent came on the Sabbath 
to attend religious services in the town-plot, crossing the river, before the 
bridge Avas built, on a scow or ferry-boat. 

A bridge has been maintained at this place or near it, from that time to 
the present, and known by the name of Lathrop's bridge, taking its desig- 
nation from the nearest prominent resident and landholder. 

In the freshet of February, 1727, four of the town bridges were swept 
away, and among them was this which crossed the Shetucket. 

The rebuilding of this bridge in 1728 was marked by a mournful casu- 
alty. It was the 28th of June. A large party of the inhabitants had 
assembled to assist' in raising the bridge, which was 20 feet high and 
about 250 feet in length. Just as they were putting together the upper 



344 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

work, a principal piece of timber whicli lay in the foundation of this upper 
work, being spliced, gave way at the joint, and falling, tripped up the 
dependent frame, which with its own weight careened and overset, break- 
ing down the pillars on which it rested. One hundred feet of the bridge 
fell, with forty men on it. The water was very low, and the people were 
precipitated upon the rocks in all directions. No one escaped without 
bruises and contusions ; twenty were severely wounded, and two killed. 
These two were Jonathan Gale of Canterbury, nineteen years of age, the 
only son of a widowed mother, who was killed instantly, — "a very hope- 
ful youth, the darling of the family," — and Mr. Daniel Tracy, son of 
Lieut. Thomas Tracy, and one of the last survivors of the old stock that 
came from Saybrook, who died the next day of his mortal wounds. 

An account of this calamity was published in a small pamphlet,* in 
which the writer compared the appearance of the dead and wounded, 
after their extrication from the ruins, to the aspect of a battle-field after 
a hot action. Messengers were sent abroad for aid, who spread through 
the town imperfect accounts of the sad event. 

Hundreds hastened to the spot with biers and teams, and all necessary 
appliances for relieving or removing the sufferers, and " men of skill for 
wounds and broken bones" were not slow in offering aid. 

" The men most consitlerably wounded [says the pamiDhlet account] are, 

Lieut. Samuel Butts, Samuel Lawrence, 

Josias Keed, Joseph Safford, 

Ambrose Blunt, Joseph Knight, 

John Bishop, Benjamin Knight, 

John Elderkin, Samuel Parrish, 

David Lamb, Ebenezer Harris, 

Nathaniel Walton, Josiah Bates, 

Solomon Lothrop, James Longbottom, 

Jacob Perkins, John Longbottom, 

Thomas Gates, Josias Molton. 

Some of these had their ribs, some their arms, and others their legs broken, besides 
other bones shivered and dislocated ; others had wounds, cuts and bruises in their heads, 
faces, bodies, arms, legs and feet, and some exceedingly bruised within. Some of them 
were at first taken out and laid by for dead, and the recovery of some for several days 
much doubted, but since they are all like to recover." 

* Entitled,— An Account of the Surprizing Events of Providence, which hapned 
at the Eaising of a Bridge in Norwich, June 28th, 1728. 

With some Affecting Remarks wove into the History. As also some practical 
Improvement thereof. Published at the Desire of some concerned therein, to the End 
it may be Preserved as a Profitable Remembrancer of the Danger and Deliverance of 
This Day. 

New London, Printed and Sold by T. Green, August 7th, 1728. 



HISTOEY OP NORWICH 



345 



Many hair-breadtli escapes occurred. Solomon Lathrop fell forty feet 
from the top of a needle post, and was pitched head foremost between two 
rocks, into a hole of deeper water than ordinary, and yet not killed. This 
Mr. Lathrop was father to the Rev. Joseph Lathrop of West Springiield, 
who was born about three years after this narrow escape of his parent. 

" Mr. Tracy [says the cotemporary narrative] was not a person concerned in the 
affair, only as he was a benefactor to it, and went out that day to carry the people 
some provision, and happened to be on the bridge, at that juncture of danger : a man 
that had been alwaj-s noted for an uncommon care to keep himself and others out of 
probable danger, and yet now himself insensibly falls into a fatal one. And very 
remarkable is it, that to keep his son at home this day, and so out of danger by that 
occasion, he chooseth to go himself on the forenamed errand, and is taken in the snare 
which he thought more probable to his son." 



THE GRAVE-STONE RECORD. 
[Head.] [Foot.] 



HERE LIES ye BODY 

OF MR. DANIEL 

TRACY . . . WHO 

DIED JVNE Ye 

29 . . 1728 . .AGED 

76 YEARS. 



MR. 


DANIEL TRACY. 


THIS WORTHY IN 


A GOOD OLD AGE 


DIED BY A FALL 


FROM A BRIDGE. 



It would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain how many times 
Lathrop's bridge has been rebuilt, or rather how many bridges have been 
erected at this point since J 717, when the first timbers were laid over the 
river. From intimations in the records we learn that a new and substan- 
tial bridge was built "over the Shetucket near Capt. Lathrop's," in 17G4.* 
Again in 1791 the town action shows that "a bridge was to be built at 
Mr. Zephaniah Lathrop's between Lisbon and Norwich : the river being 
there 212 feet wide at high water mark," and a rate was granted to cover 
the expense. 

Since the present century came in, this bridge was partially destroyed 
by the ice, Feb. 15, 1805 ; the shock coming so suddenly that a man 
crossing at that time was carried down the stream, and with difficulty res- 
cued from the current. Two years later, in the freshet of March 2, 1807, 
the bridge was entirely swept away. 

* 1768". It was ordered, that when a town meeting was to be warned, a writtea noti- 
fication should be set up on the Little Elm before Capt. Ebenezer Lathrop's door. 



346 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

A bridge built at this place in 1817, at an expense of $10,000, was 
destroyed March 6, 1823. At this time the tlood lifted it from the abut- 
ment and piers, and bore it along in position, unbroken, till it came to the 
rapids near the mouth of the river. It then separated into three parts, 
and glided with graceful ease into the Thames. 

In 1836, the Norwich and Worcester Railroad Company in crossing 
the Shetucket located their bridge upon the site of the old Lathrop bridge, 
which was then about to be once more rebuilt. An arrangement was 
made with the town, by which the latter consented to take up a new posi- 
tion for their bridge, a short distance higher up the river, the company 
paying all expenses over and above what would have been incurred by 
retaining the former site. 

The bridge erected at that time lasted well, wore out in the service, and 
was finally swept away, Feb. 9, 1857. A new one has since taken its 
place. 



In 1750, or near that period, the following bridges were maintained by 
the town : 

1. Over Bradford's or Susquetomscot brook, on the road to Lebanon. 

2. Great Pond brook, on the road to Colchester. 

3. Pease's brook. These were the three branches of the Yantic. 

4. At Bean Hill. 5. Quarter bridge. 6. The Court-House bridge. 
7. No-man's Acre bridge. These four crossed the Yantic. 

8. Beaver's brook, in West Farms Society. 

9. Trading Cove brook, on the road to New London. ■ 

10. Elderkin's bridge, on the road to Windham. 

11. "Wood's bridge over Showtuckett, north of Pettipaug." This was 
afterward Lord's bridge, uniting Franklin with Lisbon. 

12. Lovett's bridge. 13. Lathrop's bridge. 
The last four were over the Shetucket. 

14. Johnson's bridge over the Quinebaug, on the road to Plainfield. 

15. Pachaug bridge, east of the Quinebaug. 

These were all constructed and kept in order by rates and highway 
labor. Whiting's bridge, at the mouth of the Shetucket, was extant at 
this time, but was supported by toll. 

Lovett's bridge, mentioned above, was about three miles above Lathrop's, 
on the road from Norwich to Woodstock. In this vicinity, on the west side 
of the river, were the Leffingwell and Kirtland farms, and on the east the 
Lovetts were proprietors. These ancient bridges often took the name of 
the nearest resident landholder, and the large Lovett farm-house near the 
bridge, serving also as a house of entertainment for wayfarers, with its 
lofty shade-trees, its swinging sign, its inviting horse-sheds and other 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 347 

dependencies, had the appearance of a small hamlet. The name — Lov- 
ett's bridge — has since given place to that of Eagleville, a manufacturing 
establishment which has taken possession of the neighborhood, occupying, 
like most of our inland mills, a choice position in the midst of romantic 
scenery. 



The first bridge near the mouth of the Shetucket, uniting Chelsea Land- 
ing with Preston, was built by Capt. William Whiting,* who, for this pur- 
pose, in 1737, obtained a loan of £80 from the town treasury. It was 
designed to be a free bridge, and in order to enable the contractor to meet 
the payment of the loan, in Decemb(,n-, 1737, a subscription was opened 
in town meeting, and the sum of £85 15s.' pledged for his use. The 
number of contributors was eighty-three, and the sums varied from 5s. to 
£5. The highest on the list were Joshua Huntington, John Williams, 
Samuel and John Story, Isaac Clarke, and Samuel Backus, probably the 
men doing the most business at the time. 

Subsequent subscriptions raised the amount to £130, but the contractor 
stating that the bridge had cost £350, he was permitted to remunerate 
himself by a toll upon travelers. 

In 1744, after six years wear. Whiting's bridge having sagged so much 
as to be pi'onounced unsafe, was blocked up for a short period, and then 
repaired by Lieut. John Edgerton, who was recompensed by the toll for 
the space of three years. It continued in use till 1748, when it was 
again condemned. 

In 1751, after discussion of the subject in town meeting, 

" Voted, that the town will join witli Mr. John Edgerton in a memorial to the Gen- 
eral Assembly to grant a lottery for the making of a Great Bridge over the mouth of 
Shoutuckett, toll free." Joseph Tracy was appointed agent. 

The lottery was granted, and Edgerton's bridge built. It was 200 feet 
long, cost £4,000, old tenor, and notwithstanding its charter that it should 
h^free, permission to take toll was granted by the General Assembly. It 
was swept away by the freshets of 1762. 

* Three persons of the name of Whiting, residents of Norwich, were bridge-builders. 
Capt. William Whiting, who built the Shetucket bridge in 1737, was a son of the Rev. 
Samuel Whiting of Windham, and a resident in the north-west part of Norwich, now 
Bozrah. He was afterwards distinguished for his gallantry in the French wars upon 
the frontier. Dr. Dwight, in his travels, (Vol. 1, p. 497,) observes that the bridge at 
West Boston, erected in 1793, at a cost of $76,000, was built under the direction of 
"Major Whiting of Norwich." This was Ebenezer Whiting, father of the late Capt. 
Edward Whiting of Norwich, and a descendant of Col. William Whiting, an early 
inhabitant of Hartford, who was brother of the Rev. Samuel of Windham. 

Zenas Whiting of Norwich was known extensively as a bridge-builder. In 1794 he 
went to New Hampshire with a gang of twenty men, and built a bridge over the Pis- 
cataqua river. 



348 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The next bridge at this place is sufficiently described in the following 
newspaper article : 

June 20, 1764. "Leffingwell's Bridge over Shetucket river at Norwich Landing is 
completed. It is 124 feet in length, and 28 feet above the water. Nothing is placed 
between the abutments, but the bridge is supported by Geometry work above and cal- 
culated to bear a weight of .500 tons. The work is by Mr. John Bliss, one of the 
most curious mechanics of the age. The bridge was raised in two days and no one 
hurt. The former bridge was 28 days in raising." 

\ 

This bridge retained its position, and the proprietor was allowed a por- 
tion of the toll for fourteen years. But in 1777 it was much injured by 
floods, and the town having purchased Leffingwell's remaining interest, 
united with Preston in petitioning the Legislature (May session, 1778,) 
for leave to raise money by lottery for the erection of a new bridge. The 
petition was granted. 

The managers of the lottery were Christopher Leffingwell, Jacob De 
Witt, William and Benjamin Coit, Jeremiah Halsey, and Roger Sterry — 
the two last, of Preston. Their advertisement states the lottery to have 
been granted in order "to prevent the incumbrance of a toll bridge, or a 
dangerous ferry, with one or other of which the public have been ham- 
pered for near a century past." The lottery was drawn the first Monday 
in March, 1779. 

Li the meantime the two towns could not agree upon the place where 
the bridge should stand. Committees were appointed, one after another, 
but they came to no decision. In 1780 the matter was referred to three 
well-known citizens, mutually respected and honored by the totvns, viz., 
Hon. Benjamin Huntington, Capt. Ebenezer Baldwin, and Elijah Lathrop, 
Esq., who reported that in their opinion the best and only convenient j^lace 
for a bridge was where the late one stood, that is, below the ferry and 
near the mouth of the river. Whereupon it was ordered that the bridge 
should be forthwith erected at that place. The building committee ap- 
pointed were John McLarran Breed, John Bliss, and Stephen Culver. 

The bridge, however, does not appear to have been built, and the select- 
men were charged to keep the ferry over the Shetucket under proper reg- 
ulation for the public convenience. In May, 1783, the town petitioned 
the Legislature for another lottery to raise £450, on the same plea as the 
former, "for building a bridge at the mouth of Shetucket river." The 
lottery was granted, and the bridge built in 1784. 

From the above data we are led to the conclusion that a bridge at this 
place was all the time being projected or being built, and lotteries were in 
progress to pay for it from 1777 to 1784, — or that two bridges were built 
in seven years, and the first swept away by some sudden, unrecorded 
calamity. It is most probable that there was but one bridge built. 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 349 

Tlie abutments of the bridge were much injured by the freshet of 1788, 
but afttfr being repaired and strengthened, it continued to perform accept- 
able service till 1793, when it was again thoroughly repaired by Capt. 
Stephen Culver, who contracted to keep it in repair for four years. At 
the end of this period it was condemned. 

The stone bridge over Swallow-all brook in East Chelsea was rebuilt 
in 1795. Destroyed by the freshet of 1807, it was again reconstructed, 
and now lies beneath the street. 

In October, 1797, a joint committee of Norwich and Preston reported 
concerning a new bridge over the Shetucket. They had examined differ- 
ent positions in order to ascertain the most eligible place, and estimated 
the cost, if built near what was called the riding-way,* at $3,083 ; if built 
near Rufus Roath's, at $3,833 ; if near the mouth, where the bridge now 
stands, not more than $2,000. The bridge was built on the site of the 
former, and the expense liquidated by the avails of a lottery. This fifth 
bridge stood for twelve or thirteen years. 

In 1815, the town records allude to the ^'enormous expenses" to which 
the town had been for many years subject for the support of bridges. 

In 1813, a committee that had been appointed to decide whether "the 
Geometry Bridge at Chelsea" could be repaired, or a new one must be 
built, reported that the decay of the old structure rendered an entirely 
new bridge a matter of necessity. This led the way to a change of ope- 
rations. A petition was presented to the General Assembly for libei'ty to 
open a new highway and span the river in a more convenient and safe 
situation. To accomplish this purpose, the Norwich and Preston Bridge 
Company was incorporated in 1816, and the next year a toll-bridge 
erected nearly half a mile above the mouth of the river. A road leading • 
to it — East Main st. — was opened in 1817, and the public travel took this 
direction. The contractor for the bridge was Capt. John Lathrop of 
Windham, and the expense $10,000. It was supported by heavy stone 
piers, and withstood the rush of the spring floods for six years, but was 
not proof against the destructive freshet of March G, 1823. All the 
upper works Avere then carried away, but the company rebuilt on the same 
foundation at an expense of $5,000. In 1858 this bridge was sold by the 
company to the towns of Norwich and Preston for $7,500. 



Giddings' Bridge. This was a structure built in 1757, which crossed 
the Shetucket below the old riding- way, and about a mile from the mouth 
of the river. The undertakers were Nathaniel Giddings of Preston and 
Nathaniel Backus, Jr., of Norwich, who contracted to build "a cart bridge 

* There were two fords or riding-ways over the Shetucket. In 1780, one is called 
"the upper riding-way in Doctor Perkins's intervale." 



350 HISTORY OF NOEWICH. 

over the river near the dwelling-house of Samuel Roath." The town 
voted to pay for the plank on condition that no toll should be demanded 
of the inhabitants of Norwich. These early bridges, being supported 
mainly by heaps of stones, and studs driven into the bed of the river, 
could offer but slight resistance to the crushing piles of ice that came 
down with the released waters in the time of floods. Giddings' bridge 
had a brief existence, and there is no record found of any other con- 
structed at that point in the river. 



Laurel Hill Bridge. In the year 1853, John W. Stedman, Thomas 
Robinson, John A. Rockwell, Henry Bill, Amos Davis, and others who 
had become interested in the purchase and settlement of Laurel Hill, 
subscribed among themselves for the erection of a free bridge over the 
Shetucket, and obtained an act of incorporation for that purpose. The 
bridge was built the same year, at an expense of $4,000. It spans the 
river at the old place, — the precise spot chosen by Whiting in 1737, and 
occupied by five successive bridges in former times. 

The proprietors also threw open a new road along the bank of the river 
toward Poquetannock, furnishing a drive of two or three miles with a 
varied and beautiful landscape spreading before the eye in its whole 
course. The bridge has since been repaired and covered, and was retained 
as private property until 1860, when the charter was relinquished and the 
bridge left to the public care. It was repaired in 1864. 



Greeneville Bridge. In 1854, Norwich and Preston united in building 
a bridge over the Shetucket at Greeneville, where the river had never 
been spanned before. It was 375 feet long, and 30 wide. The petition 
for it was signed by James D: Mo wry and 140 others. Greeneville then 
contained about 2,000 inhabitants. This bridge became conspicuously the 
victim of elemental fury. Shaken to pieces by the floods, and recon- 
structed in 1858, it was destroyed by fire July 29, 1862 ; damage estima- 
ted at $8,000. 

It has been rebuilt of iron, at the joint expense of the two towns, and 
was completed in October, 1863. It is 370 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 
cost, exclusive of the abutments, $10,000. The contractor was J. E. 
Truesdell of Springfield. 

In reviewing the history of these short-lived bridges, and observing the 
tendency of the smaller ones to swing aside at every flood and scatter 
themselves in fragments over the land, and of the lai'ger ones to embark 
on desperate voyages to the ocean, hurried onward by thronging blocks of 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 361 

ice or furious torrents, we might be tempted to think that Norwich stood 
pre-eminent, at the summit of misfortune in this respect. But that some 
of her neighbors share with her in the highest round of the ladder, may- 
be inferred from a communication received by the selectmen of Norwich 
from the town of Canterbury in 1780, in which they lament the great and 
unequal expense which they and several towns labor under, above other 
towns in the State, "by being obliged to build and maintain many great 
bridges over lai-ge rivers ; " and thej request a committee of conference to 
be appointed to consider of some mode of relief.* 

A committee was appointed, but there was no help found for the evil ; 
every town was obliged to attend to its own bridges, and the Legislature 
gave no relief but by lotteries. 



Wharf Bridge. The erection of a bridge over the cove, or mouth of 
the Yantic, so as to connect the point with the west side, was a project of 
considerable magnitude. It required a longer span than any bridge that 
bad been built in the eastern part of Connecticut. A proposition for such 
a bridge was brought before the public in 1767, by Mr. Gershom Breed. 
He seems to have originated the plan, and at last to have made it popular 
by his influence and exertions. The undertakers were Gershom Breed, 
Eleazar Waterman, and Jonathan Lester ; the builder, Christopher Reed. 

Objections were made to the erection, on the ground of danger from the 
high and precipitous hills on each side. The declivity on the east was 
particularly stony and abrupt, making the descent to the river more like a 
plunge than a regular progress. The natural features of the place have 
been so greatly altered by a long course of leveling and filling up, that 
we find it difficult to reproduce to the mind's eye those beetling cliffs that 
were here projected almost to the water's edge. It was argued also that 
the communication with the west side was not of sufficient impoi'tance to 
justify the undertaking. The town gave liberty for the bridge to be built, 
but, influenced by these objections, declined contributing to the expense. 

The undertakers nevertheless commenced operations, and the bridge 
was built in 1771. A small sum for partial indemnification was raised by 
lottery, the managers being Daniel Lathrop, William Hubbard, and Jedi- 
diah Huntington. 

* It was while engaged in repairing a bridge over the Quinebaug, between Canter- 
bury and Phiinfield, which had been partially destroyed in a severe freslkct, that the 
first David Nevins of Connecticut lost his life. He was standing on one of the cross 
beams of the bridge, giving directions to the workmen, and had his watch in his hand, 
which he had just taken out to see the time, when, losing his balance, he fell into the 
swollen stream, was swept down by the current, and drowned before he could be rescued. 
This was in the spring of 1757. 



352 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

This bridge, though merely an experimental work, was found to be a 
great public convenience. A vast quantity of labor remained to be per- 
formed in the way of grading and preparing the roads that led to it. 
Numerous meetings were held, and plans discussed, which ended in a 
decision that the bridge should be enlarged, improved, strengthened 
against floods, and rendered passable for loaded teams. For this purpose, 
another lottery was granted by the Legislature in October, 1773, to raise 
£278 or $926 '■^for jinisMng and completing the great Wharf Bridge at 
Chelsea in NorwichP Managers, Joshua Lathrop, Rufus Lathrop, and 
Samuel Tracy. It was drawn in May, 1774.* 

The importance of this bridge has never since admitted of question. 
It is a thoroughfare which the public good requires to be always kept in 
a condition fit for service. Therefore the damages it has sustained by 
flood, fire, or the wear and tear of years, have always been speedily 
repaired, and it seems rather like one and the same bridge, than as it 
really is, and as all others of the town have been, — a succession of 
bridges. 

The highway near this bridge was originally a part of Mr. Breed's 
house-lot. The building of this bridge led to improvements in all the 
avenues connected with it. The highway below the Episcopal church 
was widened ; the road on the west side, running from the bridge to Sandy 
Beach, was improved ; and a new one opened from the Landing to the 
New London road. 



Freshets. The annual breaking up of the ice in the rivers is so often 
attended with a destructive overflow of the waters, that it is usually con- 
templated prospectively with some degree of apprehension. When the 
rains come, and the ice begins to crack, mills and bridges perchance may 
be swept away, meadow lands devastated, fences destroyed, and serious 
losses sustained. Some parts of the town are peculiarly exposed to such 
ravages. The narrow and winding outlet of the Shetucket, and the high 
banks that restrain it on the south, naturally tend to throw the accumula- 
ted swell of the river over the flat part of Chelsea. 

Only a few of the most remarkable spring floods can be here chronicled. 

Sept. 4, 1720. " The flood raised Norwich river to a prodigious height; stacks of 
hay floated down ; it carried away the bridge by the meeting house and much fence." 
[Hempstead's Diary.] 

* This lottery had 2,000 tickets at $2.50; highest prize, $3,000. Paper bills were 
received and paid out promiscuously with silver. The petition for the lottery was 
signed by eighty of the principal citizens. In looking over the list in 1837, sixty-five 
years after the signing, only one of the eighty was living, viz., Capt. David Nevins. 
He died in January, 1838, aged 91 years. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 353 

The Boston News-Letter notices an extraordinary flood of the She- 
tucket at Norwich, 28th of February, 1729. The warehouses at the 
Landing were much injured, but the newspaper adds the comj^ensatory 
information, " there was fine bass-fishing after it," — twenty thousand bass 
having been taken in the river a little below tlie point. 

A thaw and freshet of unusual power and rapidity of action occurred 
Jan. IG, 1737. The Shctucket above its outlet being impeded by a solid 
bed of ice, the rushing flood was suddenly thrown back, and spreading 
over the low land, rose to twenty feet in ten minutes, sweeping off three 
warehouses with all their contents, and injuring several others. Blocks 
of ice were left in some instances on the roofs of buildings. 

In the spring of 1757, a severe flood committed great havoc with the 
bridges and other works of man exposed to its fury. 

Jan. 8, 1784, was distinguished by a yet greater and more sweeping 
freshet, which affected both the Yantic and the Shetucket. Several mills 
and bridges on the upper courses were swept away, and large quantities 
of lumber came floating down the streams. Happily there was but little 
ice in the Thames, to obstruct the downward flow, and Chelsea escaped 
inundation. A slaughter-house near the wharf bridge was swept off with 
all its contents, beef, hides, tallow, cooperage, and tools, and not a vestige 
left. 

The freshet of February, 1788, was destructive to the smaller bridges. 
Lovett's was entirely demolished, and many others so much injured as to 
make reconstruction necessaiy. 

The year 1789 was marked by a June freshet. For two days, the 10th 
and 11th of tliti month, the ruins were continuous and flood-like, causing 
a rapid rise in all the streams that feed the Thames. The Shetucket and 
Yantic, swollen by their impetuous tributaries, sweeping aside bridges, 
mills and dams, deluging corn-fields, and precipitating large rocks upon 
the meadows, came rushing down upon Norwich Landing, and lilted the 
river nearly to a level with its lower tier of roofs. This flood, however, 
was of brief dui-ation. The M'aters passed over with a furious swash, and 
then quietly subsided. 

Jan. 29, 1797, was marked by a peculiar freshet resulting from a Jan- 
uary thaw. The smaller rivers were broken up, and heavy blocks of ice 
sweeping downwards conmiitted great havoc in their course. The court- 
house bridge Avas so thoi'oughly broken up that only a heap of iVagments 
remained. It was compared to a wreck mad(; by thousands of hammers. 

After the present century came in, the first great flood was in 1807. 
Tlie rivers began to break up on Saturday night, Feb. 7th. The cracking 
of the vast blocks of ice was like the crash of thunder. The Shetucket 
rose eighteen or twenty feet. Lord's and Lathrop's bridges were swept 
away. On Sunday morning, fire was cried through the streets, and alarm 
23 y 



354 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

bells were rung. For many years no such inundation had been known. 
The current swept over East Chelsea, and for a time gave it the appear- 
ance of a lake, with a few houses lifting their roofs above the waters. 

The flood rose so rapidly that several families were taken by surprise 
and imprisoned in their houses. They retreated to the upper stories, but 
when the water came within a few inches of the second floors, it was con- 
sidered unsafe for them to remain, and they were brought away in boats, 
into which they dropped from the windows.* From hill to hill, all Frank- 
lin and East Main street was an expanse of water. 

At the intersection of the streets, from the corner where now stands the 
Wauregan hotel to the opposite corner, a temporary embankment was 
raised with great celerity and good effect. It was composed of timbers, 
spars, rails, and wood, secured by heavy stones, and filled in with hay, 
straw, canvas, and any thing that would resist leakage ; and though the 
waters slightly trickled over this breastwork, it kept off the great volume 
of water until the river subsided, which was in the course of a few 
hours. 

From subsequent town acts and accounts, we obtain the result of bridge 
damage from this freshet. The stone bridge over Swallow-all brook, and 
Lathrop's bridge, were rebuilt ; Lovett's repaired ; Geometry bridge, 
abutments replaced ; Wharf bridge, Court-house and Quarter bridges 
X'epaired. 

In September, 1815, at the equinox, a most destructive gale of wind 
was experienced on the coast of New England. At Chelsea the tide rose 
to an unprecedented height. Several stores on the wharves were swept 
entirely away, and others injured. On the wharf bridge the depth of 
water was five or six feet; beating over it with such fury as to carry off 
the market and a store adjoining. The market drifted up the river and 
lodged on the east side of the cove, thirty or forty yards above the bridge. 
Tlie brig Mary and several sloops and schooners were driven ashore, 
knocking in the sides of stores, and lodging almost in the streets. 

A remarkable freshet occurred on the Gth of March, 1823, which was 
caused by a rain of twenty four hours continuance falling upon a deep 
snow. Six bridges over the Yantic were carried away, viz., three in 
Norwich, two in Bozrah, [at Col. Fitch's iron-Avorks and Bozrahville,] 
and one in Franklin. The oil-mill at Bean Hill was swept off, and the 
oil-mill and machine-shop near the Falls much injured. On the wharf 
bridge some of the buildings were shifted in their position, or partly 
turned round, and the Methodist chapel, Avhich stood on the bridge, was 
swept away entire, moving off majestically like a ship from her moorings, 

* Capt. Rockwell's family was removed in this way. By the gradual filling in of the 
street, the site of the ancieat Rockwell house is several feet higher thaa formerly. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 855 

bowing to tlie waves and righting herself again, floating a mile down the 
river before any part of it was broken, and the frame keeping together, 
according to report, until it passed into the Sound. It had been decorated 
with evergreens for some previous festive occasion, and tliese ornaments 
had not been removed when it sailed so gallantly away. This incident of 
the wrecked church gave rise to many exaggerative and fanciful stories. 
The newspapers alleged that it bore off both pastor and flock, and that 
they were heard singing as they passed New London. They reported 
also that it had landed whole on one of the islands, and that services would 
be performed there in future. A schooner from Providence, then in the 
Sound, asserted that it came driving by them in the night with lights 
in it.* 

So great was the force of the water brought down by this flood, that the 
Yantic was considerably deepened in some places by the removal of large 
stones. One that weighed more than a ton, and which had been placed 
in the bed of the river many years before, to support a foot-bridge, was 
raised, carried up into a meadow, and thrown against a large tree. An 
oil-mill was swept off, with a considerable quantity of flax-seed in it. By 
the middle of May, several meadows adjoining the river were covered 
with young flax. 

March 11, 1835, ushered in a freshet similar to that of 1823, the water 
rising twelve or fifteen feet. The walls, sheds, and small buildings along 
the banks of the Shetucket were swept away like chaff. Lathrop's bridge 
was broken up ; a shanty used by workmen on the Norwich and Worces- 
ter Railroad was carried past the city Avithout breaking; another building 
in which some persons were collected was submerged nearly to the roof, 
and the occupants were taken from it by boats. Two horses which were 
carried away and were seen passing down the river, helplessly tossed 
about in the torrent, formed an impressive feature of the scene. 

Feb. 8, 1854, most of the wharves were submerged by the breaking up 
of the ice, and the basements of buildings near the river filled with water. 
Central wharf and the Junction railway were overflowed. At the freight 
depot of the New London and Norwich Railroad, the rails were covered 
to the depth of eighteen inches. 

On the 30th of April, the same year, a violent storm caused another 
inundation ; the currents of the Yantic and Shetucket struggling together, 
threw the water back, and the wharf bridge was partially destroyed. 

The 9th and 10th of February, 1857, were marked by a freshet which 
might be called the ILalf-century Flood, as occurring so near the anniver- 
sary of that of 1807. The destruction of property was greatest in the 

* This incident gave rise to a little poem, by Brainerd, called " The Captain." 
Though but a fragmentary production, it is very graphic and highly finished. 



356 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

last instance. The heavy timbers from Lord's and Lathrop's bridges 
came floating down with fearful power. In the flood of 1807 it was East 
Chelsea that was submerged, the rise of water being in the Shetucket and 
in Stony brook ; but in that of 1857, the water front of the city was swept 
over by the raging flood. The river below was blocked up by the ice, 
and the loosened streams meeting with this obstruction, were thrown back 
upon the wharves and buildings of Water street in a sudden deluge, which 
however performed its mission at once, and having opened a passage below, 
rapidly retreated. 



Census op Norwich, Jan. 1, J 774. 

Persons. Families. Dwelling-houses. 



First Society, 
West " 
Newent, - 
East, - 

New Concord, 
Chelsea, 
Hanover, - 
Eighth, 



Males under 10, 

Females »< - - 

Males between 10 and 20, 
Females " " 

Males between 20 and 70, 
Females " " 

Males above 70, 
Females « - - 

In 1779, number of families in First Society, 367 5 persons, 2184. In 
Chelsea, 129 families, 1111 persons. 

In 1775, Norwich ranked as the second town in the Grand List of the 
Colony : 

New Haven, £73,210.0.2. 

Norwich, £66,678.29.2. 

Farmington was third on the list, and only £101 less than Norwich. 

Hartford stood at £48,120.10. 



1978 


317 


283 


875 


133 


111 


641 


98 


92 


1100 


76 


69 


932 


146 


130 


1019 


127 


104 


323 


53 


44 


453 


74 


68 


7321 


1024 


901 


_ 


_ 


1099 


. 


. 


1054 


. 


. 


916 


. 


- 


749 


- 


- 


1408 


. 


- 


1574 


- 


- 


78 


_ 


. 


94 



CHAPTEE XXYII. 

First Newspaper, the Norwich Packet. 

In 1773, the first Newspaper was established in Norwich. The pro- 
prietors and printers were Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and 
John Trumbull, under the firm of Robertsons & Trumbull. It had a 
flourishing head-piece inclosing the rude cut of a ship under full sail, and 
an imposing title, making pretensions to a wide circulation, as represented 
below in reduced size. 



OCTOBER, Mdcclxxiii. 



THE 



Vol. I. Number 3. 





AND 

CONNECTICUT, 
NEW-HAMPSHIRE & 



THE 

MASSACHUSETTS, 
RHODE-ISLAND 



WEEKLY ADVERTISER. 



From Thursday, Oct. 14, to Thursday, Oct. 21, 1773. 



Price, six shillings and eight pence per annum. 

The press was at first set up in an office ''at the foot of the Green, 
near the Court House," but in July, 1775, was removed to a new building 
" near the Meeting House," which from that time forth, for fifty years or 
more, was known as Trumbull's printing-office. 



858 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

At that eventful era, when the great struggle for liberty commenced, 
Norwich might be taken as a fair model of the best class of New England 
towns. The streets were lively with industry and enterprise, and the 
society was ahead of most others in educational facilities, literary culture, 
and the embellishments of domestic life. 

The memory of this period was long kept green in the hearts and 
minds of those inhabitants who lived into after generations. They looked 
back to it as to a golden age of hearty social enjoyment, where economy 
and hospitality went hand in hand, and stateliness harmonized with sim- 
plicity. It was a pex-iod when a moderate degree of prosperity satisfied 
desire, destroying anxiety for the future, without awakening the greed for 
superfluous wealth ; when apparel and furniture were gay and glittering, 
but not extravagant ; when few were so rich as not to be kept vigorous 
and bright by daily attention to business, and few were so poor as not to 
command a plentiful table ; when thought was expansive and bold in 
speculations concerning liberty, but had not yet deepened into solemn con- 
siderations of the rights of man. 

"We are not wholly dependent on tradition for vivid sketches of this 
great transition period. A community is photographed in its local papers, 
and a lively impression of the general affairs and domestic pursuits of the 
town may be gathered from the contemporary numbers of the Norwich 
Packet. 

As the early files of this paper are now very rare, a few excerpts relat- 
ing to local affairs may prove interesting. 

[1773.] Oct. 28. The season has been so very mild, that a mess of green peas was 
picked the last week in this town, spontaneously grown from seed produced this year. 

Dec. 13. The officers and soldiers who belonged to Gen. Lyman's regiment of Pro- 
vincials, and were at the taking of Havannah, are notified to meet at the house of Mr. 
John Durgie,* Innholder, in Norwich, to enquire why the last dividend of their prize 
money has not been paid, &c. 

Marriages were notified in such terms as these : 

Nov. 1773. Last Thursday evening, Mr. Mandator Tracy, an accomplished young 
gentleman, was married to the agreeable Caroline Bushnell, a young lady endowed 
with every qualification to make the connubial state happy. 

John Chester, Esq. of Wethersfield, to the amiable Miss Elizabeth Huntington, dau' 
of Col. Jabez Huntington. 

Deaths in this way : 

Feb. 17, 1774. On Friday last, departed this life at Pomcchoag, her saffron colored 
majesty, Ann Queen Dowager, of the Monahegan Indians, and yesterday her remains 
were interred in a manner suitable to her high rank, in the Indian burying ground at 
Chelsea. 

* The popular pronunciation of Durkee. 





'^^^ /^"^ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 859 

Feb. 10, 1774. Yesterday, Mr. James Burnam, of this town, brou,<iht to market a 
sled load of wood, which completes the number of 2, .500 loads, which he lias drove in 
himself, 4 miles, and sold since 1754. A great part he cut himself— -all hnt 50 loads 
on his own land— all v/hich he has done without upsetting a cart, breaking a wlicel or 
sled, bruising a finger, or injuring an ox or horse by any wound. He sold his wood 
for X820 ;~-has about 6 times as much more on his land, which he intends leuring for 
some other person to cart and draw, he having done his full share that way. He has 
also expended 500 days of labour on 2 acres of land, in subduing and fencing it. 

From another article respecting this Mr. James Burnham, — a hirge- 
minded, hard-working farmer, — we learn that in 1760 his house and fur- 
niture had been consumed by fire ; that he replaced his loss with a com- 
fortable house neatly furnished ; built 400 rods of stone-wall with his own 
hands ; gave the public a highway through his land of 100 rods ; built and 
painted a school-house and gave it to the district, and for several years 
had chiefly supplied it with fuel. Such an example of unselfish eterprise 
•with limited means, in a secluded splierc, deserves to be perpetuated. 

1774, Feb. 11. By Capt. Holmes who arrived at Stonington last Sunday from the 
West Indies, we hear the melancholy news of the death of Capt. William Billings of 
this town, who died about the beginning of January last of a fever at Dominica. His 
death is universally lamented by all his acquaintance.* 

March 3, 1774. A number of Physicians in the County of New London, taking 
into consideration the importance of those that enter the practice of Physick being 
endued with competent knowledge to prosecute the ttndcrtaking in such a manner as 
shall best promote the publick good ; request their brethren of the Faculty in said 
County to meet at the house of Mr. Azariah Lathrop in Norwich on Thursday tho 
24th inst. at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, to consider upon the matter and prefer a Me- 
morial to the General Assemljly at their next Session, that the Practice of Physick 
may be put under some better regulation. 

This memorial was signed by Theophilus Rogers and ten other physi- 
cians. It was the first step toward medical organization in Connecticut.! 
Tlie Assembly at this time declined acting upon the p(!tition, but after the 
Revolution several medical associations were incorporated. Of the New 
London County Medical Society, Dr. John Barker of Franklin, one of 
the original memorialists, was the first President. 

April, . Dr. Turner has recently extracted the bone of an alcwife from tho 

throat of Mr. Ebenezer Lord, where it had been lodged for 25 years, and at various 
limes had given him exquisite pain. It was about the size of ft brown thread needle 
and was barbed from end to end. 

* Capt. Billings was scarcely 40 years of age. His wife (Mary Richards) survived 
him 30 years. One of their daughters married Captain Behi Peck and was the mother 
of Mrs. Harriet Peck Williams. 

t App. to Norwich Jubilee, article Physicians, by A. WoodwRrd, M. D. 



860 HISTOEY OP NORWICH. 

May 2, 1774. A great military parade took place at Woodstock, accompanied by a 
mock fight, under the direction of Capt. Samuel M'Clellan. A party dressed as In- 
dians, seized upon some children who were looking on, and ran off with them, but 
were pursued by the troop and the children rescued. 

Oct. 20, 1774. Last Thursday (Oct. 14) between the hours of 7 and 8 o'clock P. M. 
a smart shock of an cartliquakc was felt here, and we are since informed it was felt also 
at Newport in Rhode Island ; but have not heard of any damage done by it.* 

July 10, 1775. This day Mr. SafFord of Preston sets off for Crown Point and Ti- 
conderoga, to open a communication between those fortresses and this town. 

The above article leads to the supposition that a portion of the recruits 
then in garrison at these posts belonged in this vicinity. Post-riders at 
that era were important agents, performing the work of the mail, the post- 
office, and the telegraph. "j" 

Every shop seems to have been a variety store, containing a miscella- 
neous assemblage of goods. The advertisements often represented a ludi- 
crous combination of pursuits. 

Example : 

Ebenezer Freeman, from Boston. 

Blue-Dyer, 

Informs the Public that he carries on the business 

of dyeing of Cottton, Tow and Linen a most 

beautiful blue (in indigo) with the greatest 

despatch. 

Also takes in genteel Boarders. 

Has a Handsome Chaise to let. 

Ladies' Gauze Caps, Flys, Handkerchiefs, Aprons, 

&c. ready made in the newest taste at his house 

leading to the Landing, mostly opposite to Cajjt. 

Hubbard's J 

A noted feature of that period was the great number of taverns, and 
these were connected with a constant stream of dinners, suppers and club 
meetings that were necessary to support them. On the Plain were two 
of special note, the Lathrop Inn, and one kept for many years by Joseph 
Peck. John Wheatley was also a landlord in this neighborhood for a 

* Another slight shock of an earthquake, experienced in this part of Connecticut, 
May 6, 1788, is recorded in the Packet near that date. 

t A curious interest is excited when we observe how largo a proportion of advertise- 
ments in the old newspapers of our country relate to strays. Taken up at such a time ; 
came into the inclosure of the subscriber ; strayed away, &c., &c. Innumerable are the 
spotted heifers, red steers, white-l;iced yearlings, brindle cows, sorrel mares, roan l.orses, 
and other animals, that are advertised as lost or found, — suggestive at least of loose 
fencing and a bountiful supply of live-stock. 

X Capt. Wm. Hubbard occupied the house late the residence of Joseph H. Strong. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 861 

short period, but he entered the army in 1775, aud fell in the first action 
in which he took part. 

Upon Bean Hill, Major Durkee entertained country travelers and town 
politicians ; the Lefhngwell tavern near the east end of the town plot was 
a noted place of resort ; Lathrop at the Falls and Morgan on the Great 
Plain were licensed to receive guests and furnish refreshments ; and at 
the Landing, public houses were kept by Ebenezer Fitch and Jeremiah 
Harris, while on all the neighboring roads, wherever ways met, a bridge 
occurred, or a few houses were clustered togethei", the traveler was con- 
fronted by the alluring tavern sign. 

The same year that the Norwich Packet was commenced, [1773,] an- 
other printing-press Avas set up on the Plain by Green & vSpooncr. It is 
probable that they were on the ground before the Robertsons, but they 
published no paper. Judah Paddock Spooner, son of Thomas Spooner 
of New London, and brother-in-law of Timothy Green, who printed the 
New London Gazette, was the acting partner of the concern. This office, 
like that of the Robertsons, issued pamphlets and books of considerable 
size. The paper used by both firms was manufactured at Leilingvveirs 
mill on the Yantic. 

In some instances the two presses were rivals, reprinting the same 
works, and each endeavoring to forestall the other. Green & Spooner 
preceded the Robertsons in bringing out an edition of Watts' Psalms, 
[1773,] and of the Manual Exercise as ordered by his Majesty in 1764. 
Tliey were competitors also in issuing school-books and almanacs. 

The celebrated Dialogue concerning the Slavery of the Africans, which 
advocated the doctrine of immediate emancipation, — written by Dr. Hop- 
kins and addressed to the Continental Congress, — came from the press of 
Green & Spooner in 177G. They also reprinted and assisted in sowing 
the country with Paine's Common Sense. This establishment continued 
its operations about five years. 

In May, 1774, "Nathaniel Patten, Book binder and Stationer from 
Boston," opened a shop '"near the east end of the Plain," not far trom 
Robertson's printing-otfice. He proposed " to bind, gild and letter books 
in as splendid a manner as can be done in London;" and at the same 
time offered lor sale the largest assortment of books that had probably 
ever been displayed in this part of Connecticut. His stock included 
works of Doddridge, Watts, Owen, Harvey, Rowe, Thomson, Smollett ; 
Blair's Grave, Pilgrim's Progress, Vicar of Wakefield, Arabian Nights, 
Milton's Looking-glass for Laity and Clergy, New England's Memorial, 
King Philip's Bloody War, Lord Somers' Judgment of Kingdoms and 
Nations, Hancock's Oration on the bloody 5th of March, 1770, Rev. Mr. 
Sampson Oocum's much-approved Collection of Hymns and Spiritual 
Songs, and many other standard and popular works, besides school-bookti 



862 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

and works for children. Of stationery he had a great variety, and to this 
he added articles in the fancy line, which resemble the items of more 
modern days. 

" A famous tincture for taking out stains. 

Surprising excellent tooth-drops. 

Venitian tooth-powder. 

Imperial lip-salve. 

A most curious eye-water, 

A most excellent worm-powder," &c. 

It would probably have been difficult at that day to find in any other 
place on the continent, out of the range of the great cities, a literary 
counter presenting gi-eater attractions to the old and young of both sexes, 
than was furnished by the book-shop of Mr. Patten on Norwich Green. 

It is a striking evidence of an intelligent community, as well as of its 
prosperity and enterprise, that two printing-offices, with each its assort- 
ment of books for sale connected with it, and a third large book-binding 
and book-selling concern, should have been located so near together. 
During the same year likewise, [1774,] Samuel Loudon from New York 
opened a shop with a large assortment of books at the Landing, which 
made four book establishments for the town. This profuse display of lit- 
erature was not, however, of long continuance. The fiery blast of war, 
which swept over the land, soon prostrated every species of trade not 
essential to the preservation of life or defence of liberty. 

Mr. Patten had left Boston on account of the troubles with the mother 
country in which that town was so deeply involved, and probably returned 
to it as soon as the British troops were withdrawn, Loudon also in the 
course of two or three years sold out his stock and removed elsewhere. 

The Robertsons settled in Norwich, apparently with the design of mak- 
ing it a permanent place of abode. They seemed to have found a home. 
Their business was on a scale above the ordinary range of the common 
printing-press of a country town. In addition to their newspaper, they 
printed a variety of local pamphlets, political tracts, occasional sermons, 
surprising narratives, manuals of military exercise, school-books and hymn- 
books. They also issued proposals for reprinting works of history and 
poetry for more enduring circulation. But the brothers were considered 
unsound on the vital question of American liberty. They were stigma- 
tized as lories in mask and Scotch interlopers. 

No cause for this obloquy appears in the columns of the Packet, the 
editors of which apparently aimed to maintain an honorable impartiality. 
Communications of the boldest patriotic bearing were freely admitted. 
The early numbers [1773] contained a series of vigorous essays, entitled 
"The Alarm," and signed Hampden. They were written by a distin- 
guished patriot of New York, and were directed against East India 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 868 

mcftopolles, the importation and use of Tea, and the Declaratory and Rev- 
enue Acts of Parliament. Many other spirited addresses appeared from 
time to time in this paper, calculated to cherish and inflame the growing 
desire for political freedom. 

Mr, Aaron Cleveland, a man of talent and a ready writer, contributed 
many pieces that had the ringing sound of genuine patriotism. One com- 
munication, wliich may serve as an illustrative example, was an elaborate 
article in the form of a sermon, upon the text, " Touch not mJne anointed." 
£Ps. 105 : 15.] The writer's argument was designed to prove that "not 
kings, but the people are the anomtcd of God, and kings are farhiddeii to 
ieuck them, thus reversing the interpretation that had been given to the 
passage by others. It v/as further maintained that a free people are 
touched when their laws and civil rights are infringed or violated. The 
application is apparent. 

As the Revolution advanced, and the great question of independence 
began to be discussed, the Robertsons avowed their dissent, and ceased to 
issue the Packet. The prejudice against them was too strong to be 
resisted. Tliey withdrew from the concern, leaving the press in the hands 
of their partner, Trumbull, and removed to New York, where they openly 
■espoused the royal cause. 

Mrs. Amy Robertson, tlie wife of James, the younger of the two 
brothers, died in Norwich, June 15, 1776, shortly before they bade adieu 
to the place. A commemorative stone in the First Society burial-ground 
points out her grave. 

The Robertsons were quite remarkable men. The sons of a printer in 
Scotland, emigrating to this country with nothing to open the way before 
them but their own industry and mechanical skill, they established them- 
selves (between the years 1768 and 1784) successively at New York, 
Albany, Norwich, Philadelphia, and Shelburne, N. S., publishing a news- 
paper at each place, of which they were the printers and editors. 

Their first pi-ess was at New York, 1768, where for two years they pub- 
lished the New York Chronicle. In 1770 they opened a printing-house 
in Albany, and came from thence to Norwich, After the British army 
took possession of New York, they pubhslied in that city The Royal 
American Gazette. At a subsequent period of the war, James Roljert- 
son issued at Philadelphia, The Royal Gazette. The following notice of 
Alexander's death is from the Norwich Packet of Dec. 30, 1784: 

"Died at Pert Roseway, [Shelburne, N. S.] in November, Mr. Alexander Robert- 
son, printer, in the 42d year of his age : a gentleman of probity, benevolence and phi- 
lanthropy ; mucli esteemed and now greatly lamented by a very numerous and respect- 
able acquaiatance%"* 



* James Robertson, after the death of his brother, returned to Scotland. 



364 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The press of Green & Spooner continued in operation till 1778, when 
Mr. Spooner accepted an invitation from the government that had been 
recently organized in Vermont, to remove to that State and execute the 
public printing.* 

After the Robertsons left Norwich, the Packet was published by Trum- 
bull alone, who appears as proprietor, printer and editor from that time to 
his decease in 1802. The paper was well conducted and a general favor- 
ite with the community. 

The original title, Norwich Packet, was retained during Trumbull's life, 
but the heading in other particulars was often changed, sometimes appear- 
ing in German text, and sometimes in Roman capitals ; now with a cut 
and a motto, and again in homely simplicity. After Trumbull assumed 
the whole proprietorship, it was entitled, — "Norwich Packet and 
Country Journal," with the ship under sail, and the motto, "A free 
press maintains the majesty of the people." 

The size of the paper varied also, reflecting therein the instability of 
the times, and illustrating the difficulties and deficiencies of the paper 
manufactory. The original sheet, 15 inches by 9^, of a pleasing buff 
tinge, was often superseded by the dingy, dark-blue, limpsy sheet, 13 by 
8, that could scarcely bear its own weight without breaking. All the 
newspapers of that day were subject to similar fluctuations. 

Mr. Trumbull was a native of Cambridge or Charlestown, Mass., and 
when he entered into partnership with the Robertsons, had but just 
attained his majority. He was remarkable for his genial humor, and 
always had a merry turn or witty remark at hand. 

During the Revolutionary war he published a large edition of Hub- 
bard's Indian Wars, [1778,] various sermons delivered on special occa- 
sions, almanacs, orations and political papers, the French treaty, naiTative 
of the Captivity of Col. Ethan Allen, and various other pamphlets, besides 
school-books and hymn-books in frequent editions. 

* He established himself first at Hanover, on the east side of Connecticut river, that 
town being then claimed by Vermont, and for a short time published a newspaper there. 
But when the Vermont claims on the east side of the river were relinquished to New 
Hampshire, Mr. Spooner removed his press to Westminster, Vt., and in February, 
1781, commenced " The Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post-Boy." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Stamp Act and the Call fok Liberty. Manufactures. 

Benjamin Huntington was chosen Town Clerk March 5, 1764. 
The first recorded town action that alludes to the subjects pending be- 
tween Great Britain and the Colonies, is the following: 

"Whereas a question arose in the mind of the Clerk of this town soon after he was 
chosen, whether or no he might with safety proceed in his office on the report of an 
act of Parliament imposing Stamp papers, &c. — Wherefore it is unanimously agreed 
to a man in full town meeting and it is hereby desired that the clerk proceed in all 
matters relating to his office as usual, — And that the town will save him harmless 
from all damages that he may sustain thereby." 

Soon after this, the citizens organized a watch and guard to prevent 
any stamps from being admitted into the place. They burned the stamp- 
master, IngersoU, in cff\gy, and a large company went to New London to 
take part in the grand demonstration there made against some stamped 
shi])papers that had been admitted into the custom-house from the West 
Indies. No bolder spirit was manifested in Boston than in Norwich. 

The Stamp Act had been passed by Parliament in March, but was not 
to go into operation until the 1st of November. Thomas Fitch, the Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, after mature deliberation, decided to support it, and 
assembled his Council, to take in their presence the oath to that effect. 
Seven out of the eleven members present, after vainly remonstrating 
against his decision, indignantly withdrew, refusing to witness the offen- 
eive ceremony. Two of these were Norwich men, — Hezekiah and Jabez 
Huntington, — one a lawyer, the other a prosperous merchant. 

IMajor Jolin Durkce of Bean Hill was an active and daring leader in 
tliese stamp-act commotions. In September, 17(55, he took command of 
a body of liberty men, that were gathered from Norwich and the neigh- 
boring towns and banded together for the express purpose of preventing 
the stamps from being distributed in Connecticut. Taking with them 
eight days' provisions, they set off towards Hartford, and being well 
mounted, overtook and arrested Mr. IngersoU at Wethersfield, on his way 
to the Assembly, and with threats of violent usage in case of refusal, com- 



366 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

manded him to resign his office of stamp-master. " The cause is not worlb 
dying for," said Ingersoll, and signed his resignation. 

This oppressive act could not be enforced. After hanging portentously 
over the country for a couple of years, it was repealed by Parliament in 
March, 1766. The first anniversary of the repeal was celebrated in 
Norwich with peculiar festivity. In a communication to the Hartford 
Courant,* the proceedings are recorded in these loyal terms : 

"Norwich, March 19, 1767. 

Yesterday, P. M. a number of gentlemen of this town assembled under Liberty Tree 
to celebrate the day that his Majesty went in his royal robes to the House of Peers and 
seated on the throne gave his assent to the Repeal of the Stamp Act, for which may 
he be forever blessed in family and pei-son with all the blessings of heaven." 

Liberty Tree was a lofty pole erected in the center of the Green, decked 
with standards and ajjpropriate devices, and crowned with a cap. A tent 
or booth was erected under it, called the Pavilion. Here, almost daily, 
people assembled to hear the news, make speeches, and encourage each 
other in the determination to resist all oppression. 

Early in December of that year, the town received the famous Boston 
Circular from the selectmen, recommending the disuse of certain enume- 
rated articles of British production. A town meeting was immediately 
convened to consider the subject, and "the said meeting being full and 
well-pleased with the important measures offered to their consideration," 
appointed a committee of the most prominent inhabitants to advise and 
report at their next meeting. This report was framed "in conformity 
with the noble example set by Boston," and consisted chiefly of an agree- 
ment not to import, purchase or make use of certain articles produced or 
manufactured out of North America ; such as tea, wines and spirituous 
liquors, superfluities of every kind, and in general all foreign manufac- 
tures, except linens and broadcloths of a very low price, and felt hats. 

They recommended also the raising of sheep's wool, flax and hemp, and 
the establishing of domestic manufactures; and that the citizens should 
especially promote those new manufactures that had been set up among 
them, of paper, stone and earthen-ware. The report closes in this man- 
ner : 

\ 

" And it is strongly recommended to the worthy ladies of this town that for the future 
they would omit tea-drinking in the afternoon ; and to commission officers, to be mode- 
rate and frugal in their acknowledgments to their companies for making choice of them 
as their officers, which at this distressing time will be more honorable than the usual 
lavish and extravagant entertainments heretofore given." — Voted unanimously Dec. 14, 
1767, and ordered to be printed in the New London Gazette. 

* No. 44. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 367 

The names of the committee brhighig in this report will show who 
were the leading patriots of the town at that time. 

Hon. Hezekiah Huntington, Mr. Gersliom Breed, 

Hon. Jabez Huntington, Mr. Jeremiali Kinsman, 

Simeon Tracy, Esq., Elisha Fitch, Esq., 

Capt. Richard Hide, Col. Wm. Whiting, 

Capt. Hugh Ledlie, Eben'r Hartshorn, Esq., ' 

Major John Durkie, Capt. Jabez Perkins, 

Mr. Isaac Tracy, Dr. Daniel Lathrop. 

The idea of Independence had not then become current in the country. 
A redress of grievances was the extent of the patriot's aim. The above 
report closes with expressing a determination to remain " loyal subjects of 
our Sovereign Lord the King ; holding firm and inviolable our attachment 
to and dependence on our mother country." 

The national song, Rule Britannia, w as often sung with a variation of 
the chorus : 

Rule Britannia ; rule the waves. 
But never make your children slaves. 

Norwich was one of the first towns in the colony to make expei'iments 
in manufactures. The manufacture of paper was begun by Christopher 
Leffiiigwell in 17GG, the Connecticut Gazette being issued on paper from 
his factory in December of that year. His stocking-looms were set in 
operation about the same time. 

As the troubles with the mother country took a more serious aspect, 
iron-works became specially important. The foundry of Elijah Backus 
at Yantic was serviceable iu the casting of cannon and mortars, and there 
was full employment everywhere for hammer, bellows and furnace. 

The encouragement of home manufactures and the rejection of all 
imported luxuries were regarded as tests of patriotism. Common dis- 
course grew eloquent in praise of plain apparel and Labrador Tea. The 
music of the spinning-wheel was pronounced superior to that of guitar and 
harpsichord. 

Homespun parties were given, where nothing of foreign importation 
appeared in the dresses or upon the table. Even wedding festivities were 
conducted upon patriotic principles. It is related that at the marriage of 
Miss Dora Flint at Windham, in December, 17C)7, the numei-ous guests 
were all arrayed in garments of domestic manufacture. The ladies ap- 
peared without silks, ribbons, gauze, or lace. The refreshments, though 
in great plenty and variety, were all of domestic produce, and the popular 
beverage was Hyperion, or Labrador Tea.* 

* Ceanothus Americanus. It grows all over New England, and is called also Red- 
root and New Jersey Tea. Not the green plant, but tlic leaves properly dried and cured 
make a tea which is said to be both wholesome and palatable. The aborigines u»ed it. 



868 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

In the summer of 1768, a stage-coach was established between Norwich 
and Providence ; leaving Lathrop's tavern every "Wednesday morning, 
and forming a weekly line. This was the first public conveyance upon 
this route. 

June 7, 1768, an entertainment was given at Peck's tavern, adjoining 
Liberty Tree, to celebrate tlie election of Wilkes to Parliament. The 
principal citizens, both of town and landing, assembled on this festive 
occasion. All the furniture of the table, such as plates, bowls, tureens, 
tumblers and napkins, were marked "No. 45." This was the famous 
number of the "North Briton," edited by Wilkes, which rendered him so 
obnoxious to the ministry. The Tree of Liberty was decked with new 
emblems, among which, and conspicuously surmounting the whole, was a 
flag emblazoned with "No. 45, Wilkes & Liberty." 

In September of that year, another festival was held at the same place, 
in mockery of the pompous proceedings of the Commissioners of Customs 
appointed for the colonies by the British Ministry. These Commissioners 
had published a list of holidays to be observed by all persons in their 
employ, and among them was '■'■ September 8th" the anniversary of the 
date of their commission. The citizens of Norwich were resolved to 
make it a holiday also. At the conclusion of the banquet, toasts wei^e 
drank, and at the end of every one was added : 

"And the 8th of September." 
Thus:— 

" The King and the 8th of September." 

" Wilkes and Liberty and the 8th of September." 

" The famous 92 and the 8th of September." 

Songs were also sung with this chorus ; nor did the assembly disperse 
without indignant speeches made against " British mis-government," and 
the disgrace of weai'ing a foreign yoke. 

October 4th, a town meeting was called to consider "the critical and 
alarming conjuncture of atFairs." This was a full assembly, and all hearts 
were warm and unanimous. There was no need of discussion or debate. 
Tlie record of the meeting in the town book is inscribed upon the margin 
with the word 

"Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!" 

three times repeated. This word alone shows the spirit that pervaded the 
assembly. They passed a vote of cordial approbation of the measures 
adopted by the Bostonians, on the 12th of September, saying: 

" We consider the noble cause they are engaged in as the common cause of our 
country, and will unite both heart and hand in support thereof, against all enemies 
■whatsoever." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 369 

It was customary at this period for tlie town to give a paper of instruct- 
ive hints to their deputies respecting the points it would be desirable for 
them to advocate in the assembly. In these instructions we find them 
repeatedly urging: 

That manufactures be encouraged. 

That del)ates be open. 

That a close union of the colonies be promoted. 

That measures be taken to lessen the number of lawsuits, or some bet- 
ter provision be made for their speedy issue. 

In May, 1769, they recommend "that some effectual measures may be 
concerted to lessen the amazing flood of private business at the Assem- 
bly." 

Jan. 29, 1770. The margin of the public record is again emblazoned 
with Liberty ! Liberty ! The following is an extract from the resolu- 
tions then passed : 

" We give this public testimony of our hearty and unanimous approbation of the 
ajjrcemcnt the merchants have entered into, to stop the importation of British goods ; 
we will frown upon all who endeavour to frustrate these good designs, and avoid all 
correspondence and dealings with tliose merchants who shall dare to violate these obli- 
gations." 

They proceeded to choose two diligent and discreet persons from each 
society, in addition to the Merchant's Committee, to make critical inspec- 
tion into the conduct of all buyers and sellers of goods, who were to pub- 
lish the names of those that should counteract the intent and meaning of 
the non-importation agreement, to the intent that such persons might be 
exposed to the odium and resentment of the people. They also recom- 
mend to the wealthy persons in town to enter into subscriptions for setting 
up and carrying on the making of nails, stocking-weaving, and other use- 
ful branches of manufacture, and every one in his respective sphere of 
action to encourage and promote industry and frugality. 

In August, repeated meetings were convened for the same purpose ; 
that is, to devise methods to support the non-importation agreement, which 
was the leading measure of the day. They declare their fixed opinion of 
the wisdom and importance of this measure, — that they will "sjiare no 
pains to give it a fixed and solid form, by following every breach thereof 
with the full weight of their indignation, and Avithholdlng all commerce 
from any who dare to violate it;" and that they are "both grieved and 
incensed at the alarming conduct of New York in violating the same." 

Elijah Backus, Esq., and Capt. Jedidiah Huntington, were selected to 
represent the mercantile and landed interest, at a meeting proposed to be 
held in New Haven, the day after the college commencement, to resolve 
on measures to support this agreement. 
24 



370 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Let it not be supposed that all this spirit evaporated in votes and public 
speeches ; there is abundant evidence that the action was suited to the 
word, and not a threat returned void. The committees of inspection were 
exceedingly vigilant ; the lady who continued to indulge in her cup of tea, 
or the gentleman in his glass of brandy, were obliged to do it by stealth. 
Any person who was found to have violated the agreement, had his name 
posted in handbills through the town, and published in the New London 
Gazette, a proceeding usually followed by insults, at least from the boys 
and populace. As the citizens were so strenuous upon this subject, it 
may be gratifying to curiosity to see a list of the articles specifically enu- 
merated in the pledge not to "import, purchase, or use, if produced or 
manufactured out of North America." 

Loaf Sugar, Wrought plate. 

Snuff, Gloves, 

Mustard, Shoes, 

Starch, Women's hats. 

Malt liquors. Men's hats, except felts, 

Linseed oil, Muffs, tippets, and ermine, 

Cheese, Lawns and gauze. 

Tea, Sewing silk, 

Wine, Women's and children's stays. 

Spirituous liquors, Broadcloths above 9s. 6d. per yard. 

Cordage and anchors. Cambrics above 5s. 

Sole-leather, Linens above 2s. 6d. 

Deck nails. Silks of all kinds except taffety. 

Clocks, Silk handkerchiefs, 

Jewelers' ware. Silk and cotton velvets. 

Gold and silver buttons, All sorts of head-dress for women, as caps, 

Gold and silver hxce, ribbons, flowers, feathers, and turbans.* 

Thread lace, 

As an example of the proceedings of the committee, the case of Mr. 
Ebenezer Punderson may be cited. This person was a man of good 
manners and education, who kept a school upon the plain ; but whose 
name was posted through the town, with the charge of having repeatedly 
drank tea, and being questioned about it, declared that he would continue 
to do so. He said, moreover, that Congress was an unlawful combina- 
tion, and their petition to his Majesty haughty, violent, and impertinent, 
and uttered other words, indicating disregard of the Continental associa- 
tion. The committee thereupon ordered, " that no trade, commerce, deal- 
ings, or intercourse whatever be carried on with him, but that he ought to 



* At Woodstock, the non-importation agreement, which was voted by the citizens, 
(Col. Israel Putnam in the chair,) rejected all imported articles except the following, 
which we may take as a list of what were considered positive necessaries, that one could 
not decently live without : Sibles, pins, needles, gunpowder, lead, flints, German steel, 
apothecary's drugs, spices, and window-glass. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 371 

be hold as iiUAYorthy the rights of freeman, and inimical to the liberties 
of his country." This had the desired effect. A public recantation was 
made by Mr. Punderson, who averred that he was sorry for what he had 
done, and would drink no more tea until the use should be fully approved 
in North America ; moreover, that he would no more vilify Congress, nor 
do any thing against the liberties and privileges of America. 

At a later pei-iod, however, [August, 1777,] the estate of Mr. Punder- 
son in Norwich was confiscated, the Commissioners stating that he had 
left the town and "joined the enemies of America." Certain property 
owned in town by William Bayard and Charles Ward Apthorp of New 
York, was confiscated at the same time. The height of land east of the 
Shetucket, still known as Tory Hill, was a part of this confiscated estate. 
We are not aware that any other property in Norwich was sequestered on 
account of toryism. 

Great exertions were made about this time to establish regular posts, 
and safe transportation lines through the colonies. Norwich was not 
behindhand in this business. In addition to the regular stage-route to 
Providence, individuals were engaged to ride weekly to all the larger cities 
in the vicinity, conveying letters, papers, memorandums, and small bun- 
dles. No effective system, however, was established in concert with other 
parts of the country, till March, 1774. At that time, Mr. William God- 
dard, a distinguished printer of Baltimore, arrived in town, being on a 
tour through the northern colonies to engage the friends of liberty to 
abolish "the illegal and oppressive parliamentary post office, and establish 
a provincial subscription post." Mr. Goddard held a conference with 
some of the citizens, who entered readily into his plans, and a regular 
weekly communication was forthwith established between Norwich and 
Boston, for which £60 per annum was subscribed. The route led through 
Windham, Pomfret, and Mendon. The post left Norwich on Thursday, 
reached Boston on Saturday, and started the next Monday for Norwich 
again. This was the first regular post between the two places. 

New London was at this period the regular place of letter-delivery for 
the three counties of New London, Windham, and Middlesex. A post- 
office was not established at Norwich till 1782. 

The manufactures of the place were daily becoming more important. 
A fulling-mill with a dye-house attached was established by Christopher 
Leffingwell in 1770, and another by Simon Huntington in 1772 ; choco- 
late mills were put in operation ; pot and pearl ashes were made by the 
calcination of plants, and a pottery for moulding stone and earthen ware 
was begun at Bean Hill. Another important enterprise was the manu- 
facture of cut shingle-nails from old iron hoops, which was commenced in 
1772, and continued during the war, by Edmund Darrow. This naillery 
was not large, employing only from four to six hands, but was a great 



372 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

convenience to the community, and merits notice from its being one of the 
first attempts in this country to make nails in a way less slow and tedious 
than the old operation of hammering them out of solid iron. 

In 1773, Mr. Thomas Harland, from London, commenced the business 
of clock and watch-making. His advertisement stated that he made hor- 
izontal, repeating and plain watches in gold, silver, metal or covered cases; 
spring, musical and plain clocks ; church clocks and regulators. Watch- 
wheels and fuzees of all sorts and dimensions, cut and finished upon the 
shortest notice, neat as in London, and at the same price. 

Mr. Harland taught a number of apprentices, who established them 
selves in other places, and thus, through his means, the business became 
extensively spread in the surrounding country. This very ingenious arti- 
zan also superintended the construction of the first fire-engine owned in 
Norwich. This was in 1788. 

The comb-making business was established in 1773, by Noah Hidden, 
near the meeting-house. Mr. Alvan Fosdick about the same period un- 
dertook the manufacture of cards at Bean Hill. In 1780, Nathaniel Niles 
began to make iron wire at the Falls, connecting also with his works a 
card-factory, and inventing, it is said, his own peculiar machinery. 

Other artizans who made their appearance at this stirring period were 
John Page, a gunsmith from Preston, England, who found ready employ- 
ment; Zurishaddai Key, a tape-weaver from Manchester, who set up a 
tape-factory at the Landing ; and Richard Collier, a brazier from Boston, 
whose foundry and sale-shop was nea^'ly opposite Trumbull's printing- 
office.* 

* Warming-pans were at that time a conspicuous article in the assortment of a bra- 
■ier, and a row of them adorned the front of Collier's shop. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Preparing for Independence. 

Three-pence sterling duty on a pound of tea ! What a mighty fer- 
ment, leading to what great results, this little tax created ! The Act was 
passed in 1767, and it included other articles to be taxed, — paper, paints, 
glass, &c., — but these duties were soon repealed, leaving the three-pence 
on tea, as the assertion of the principle that Parliament had the right to 
tax the Colonies, and this assumption could not be admitted by a free 
people. 

On the 8th of December, 1773, the pretended sachem of Narragansett, 
^'■Ok-7iooker-tunhogog"* and 70 of his tribe, emptied 342 chests of tea into 
Boston Harbor, thousands of spectators manifesting their joyful acquies- 
cence in the destruction of the Chinese herb, heretofore so highly prized. 

A circular from the Boston Committee of Correspondence, dated IMay 
13, 1774, calling for co-operation in resistance to the oppressive laws of the 
mother country, and directed to the selectmen, or principal citizens of the 
various towns, met every where a cordial response. In Norwich, a town 
meeting suggested by this communication was convened by the selectmen, 
June 6th, 

" To take into consideration the melancholy situation of our civil, constitutional 
Liberties, Rights and Privileges which are threatened with destruction by the enemies 
of his Majesty's happy reign and government over the American Colonies." 

The citizens at first assembled in the court-house, but were obliged to 
adjourn to the meeting-house in order to accommodate the large concourse 
of people who came together. The Hon. .Jabez Huntington was chosen 
moderator, and a series of patriotic resolutions drawn up by Capt. Joseph 
Trumbull and Samuel Huntington, Esq., were passed, almost by acclama- 
tion. 

In transmitting an account of these proceedings to the Selectmen of 
Boston, Capt. Trumbull observes : 

" You are called by Providence to stand foremost in the contest for tlioso liberties 
wherewith God and nature have made us free. Stand firm therefore in your lot, and 
from the apparent temper of our people wc can assure you of every support in the 
power of this town to afford you in the glorious struggle." 

* See newspapers of 1773. 



3T4 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

A standing Committee of Correspondence was at tbis time appointed, 
consisting of 

Capt. Jedidiah Huntington, Capt. William Hubbard, 

y Chr. Leffingwell, Esq., Capt. Joseph Trumbull. 

Dr. Theophilus Rogers, 

Col. Barre, in his celebrated speech in Parliament against the Stamp 
Act, had called the Americans Sons of Liberty, and this was adopted as 
the title of those associations which were organized through the colonies 
to resist the oppressive acts of England. In Norwich, however, we find 
no instance of that almost idolatrous homage to Liberty personified, which 
was then common in the country. Liberty was cherished as a principle, 
but not worshiped as a divinity. The highest personification adopted was 
calling their miignificent pole upon the plain, Liberty Tree* Neverthe- 
less, here as elsewhere, patriotism was continually rushing into extremes 
of speech and action. 

In calmly reconsidering the Revolutionary period, we are astonished at 
the violent ebullitions of passion which often marked its progress. Per- 
haps without these deep revulsions and over-actings of popular excite- 
ment, our independence would not have been so readily secured ; yet the 
personal animosity and extravagant vituperation of the period can not be 
defended. 

Speeches, letters, essays, newspapei's, were full of obloquy and personal 
reproach. They were eloquent in railing, calling names, and holding up 
caricatures to be ridiculed and demolished. The nation was in truth 
moved to its lowest depths ; the rude and ignorant were aroused to a 
sturdy and bitter fury, while lowei'ing discontent or gloomy resolution 
hung upon the brows of the well-instructed and true-hearted. 

^o set of men were more generally buffeted with scorn and ridicule 
than "the sycophant addressers of Governor Hutchinson." In the vilify- 
ing, clamorous style of the day, they were called "an infamous gang of 
villains," "groaning court-tools," "myrmidons of despotism," &c. 

July 4, 1774, Mr. Francis Green, a merchant of Boston, who was one 
of " the addressers of Hutchinson,"t being on a journey into Connecticut, 
in order, as he stated, to collect debts and transact some private business, 
put up at a tavern in Windham. This gentleman was a loyalist, and of 
course obnoxious to the Sons of Liberty, who affected to believe that he 

* Poles were erected in many places, and dedicated " to the Immortal Goddess Lib- 
erty." Dr. Warren in his oration of March 5, 1 775, addressing his fellow-citizens, uses 
the expression, "your adored Goddess Liberty." 

t Francis Green, Esq., graduated at Harvard College, 1760. He was at the capture 
of Hav.ana, 1762; died at Medford, April 21, 1809, aged 67. He was author of an 
"Essay on imparting Speech to the Deaf and Dumb," printed at London in 1783. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 376 

had some sinister designs in this journey. He Lad been stigmatized in 
tiie patriotic papers as " one of that insidious crew who fabricated and 
signed the adulatory address to strengthen the hands of that parricidal 
tool of despotism, Thomas Hutchinson." The patriots of Windham were 
no sooner aware of his presence, than they proceeded to show their dis- 
pleasure. Assembling early in the morning, they sui'rounded the tavern, 
uttering shouts of insult and threats of exalting him upon a cart, unless 
he instantly left their precincts. This he did without delay, being fol- 
lowed with hoots and execrations. An express had been previously des- 
patched to Norwich, with information that he was bound thithei". The 
whole town was moved with this intelligence, and the sexton was ordered 
to give notice of his arrival by ringing the bell. Mr. Green's carriage, 
therefore, no sooner stopped at Lathrop's tavern, than the bell rang an 
alarm, and the citizens were in an uproar. 

The plain was soon alive with the concourse, and a message was ti-ans- 
mitted to Mr. Green, giving him his choice, to depart in fifteen minutes, 
or be driven out on a cart. He was very reluctant to go ; pleaded busi- 
ness ; that he had debts in town to collect ; and stepping out upon the 
gi'een, attempted to address the people : whereupon Capt. Simeon Hunt- 
ington, a very stout man, collared him and called him rascal. By this time 
a horse and cart, with a high scaffolding in it for a seat, made its appear- 
ance, and demonstrations of lifting him to this conspicuous station being 
made, Mr. Gi'een took the most prudent course, entered his carriage, and 
amid shouts and hissings drove off; a part of the populace following him 
with drums beating and horns blowing, till he was fairly out of their pre- 
cincts. On his return to Boston, Mr. Green issued a proclamation and 
offered a reward for the apprehension of any of the ruffians wlio had 
forced him to leave Windham and Norwich. It read as follows : 

One Hundred Dollars Eeward. 

Whereas five Ruffians, calling themselves by the names of Hezekiah Bissell, Benja- 
min Lathrop, Timothy Laraby, Ebenezer Backus, and Nathaniel Warren, aided and 
assisted by a great number of others, did (in the night of the 4th inst. at Windham, 
in the Colony of Connecticut, and again in the morning of the 5th inst.) in a lawless 
and hosiile manner assault the subscriber, surrounding tlie house in which he was, for- 
cibly entering the same and intruding themselves into his particular room, endeavoring 
to intimidate him by threats, from the pursuit of his lawful and necessary business, 
menacing to seize him, with his papers, baggage, &c. and to carry him off, as well as 
intimating that his life was in danger, if lie did not submit to their illegal demands, of 
dcsistin;; from his business, and of immediately quitting the said town, and did also 
presumptuously interrupt and insult him, by repeatedly insisting on his departure, and 

WniiKEAS, (it is supposed by their instigation,) a great number of otlier 17//a»!sand 
Ruffians, one of whom called himself by the name of Simeon Huntington, did also in 
the morning of the Gili instant, in the same hostile but more cowardly inanner, sur- 
round, tiireaten, assault and lay violent hands on the subscriber at Norwich, in said 



376 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Colony, and by force compel him to quit his lawful business, and depart that town, 
thereby not only impeding him in the collecting of debts justly due to him, obstructing 
him in the settlem'^nt of accounts, and other important transactions ; (to his great det- 
riment and injury) but also putting his life in danger; And 

Whereas repeated application was made to a magistrate of Norwich aforesaid, for 
that protection which every subject in his legal business is entitled to, but no protec- 
tion being either afl'orded, offered, or promised, — This is therefore to offer a reward of 

One Hundred Dollars, • 

to any person who shall give such information of the above mentioned, high handed, 
and audacious offenders, as that they may thereby be apprehended within this province, 
and be held to answer for their infamous conduct, the same to be paid on their convic- 
tion by Francis Green. 
Boston, July 13, 1774.* 

The treatment received by Mr. Green was stigmatized by the tories, as 
a "violent outrage from a petulant mob." The patriots called it "the 
cool, deliberate remonstrance of the sons of freedom." The advertise- 
ment was a subject of merriment to the good people of Norwich, who 
repubhshed it in handbills, and hawked it about tovv^n with a running 
commentary. 

About this time subscriptions were made in various towns in Connecti- 
cut, for the poor of Boston. Norwich sent on a noble donation of 291 
sheep, and afterwards a second installment of cash, wheat, corn, and a 
flock of 100 sheep. This liberality was greatly applauded in the public 
prints. Samuel Adams, in a letter to the Committee, referring to this 
generosity, observes : " The part which the Town of Norwich takes in 
this struggle for American Liberty is truly noble." 

The sympathy felt for the Bostonians was yet further displayed by the 
spirit manifested in September of this year, on the reception of a piece of 
intelligence, which proved to be false, of a rupture between them and the 
royal troops. On Saturday, Sept. 3d, at four P. M., an express arrived 
from Col. Israel Putnam, that Boston had been attacked the night before, 
and six of the citizens killed. This was but a rumor, yet it caused the 
greatest consternation ; the citizens assembled around Liberty Tree, then 
adjourned to the court-house, and resolved to despatch an express to 
Providence. Mr. David Nevins volunteered on this service, as he had 
on many similar occasions, and departed at eight, P. M. On Sunday 
morning, 464 men, well armed, and the greater part mounted on good 
horses, started for Boston, under the command of Major John Durkee, 
and rendezvoused at Capt. Burnham's inn, seven miles from town. Here 
at eleven o'clock A. M., they were met by Mr. Nevins, on his return from 
Providence, with intelligence that the report was without foundation, — 
upon which they dispersed. That same morning, two hundred men, well 

* Massachusetts Gazette. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 377 

armed and mounted, left Windham at sunrise, and had proceeded twenty 
or thirty miles before they learned the falsity of the rumor. The people 
of Colchester were attending divine service, when a messenger entered 
and announced the report that Boston had been attacked by the troops. 
The minister immediately suspended the service, and all the men able to 
bear arms equipped themselves and marched. It was supposed that up- 
wards of 20,000 men from this colony alone were on the march to Boston 
that day. 

This false alarm had for its foundation a real aggressive act. General 
Gage landed a body of troops and removed the military stores from 
Charlestown, together Avith two field-pieces from Cambridge, to Castle 
William. This excited a tumult in Boston, the news of which, distorted 
and intensified by rumor, was delivered verbally by a hasty messenger to 
Col. Putnam at Pomfret. Putnam condensed the intelligence in a des- 
patch to Capt. Cleveland in Canterbury, who sent it on by express to 
Major John Durkee in Norwich ; the latter forwarded it to New London, 
from whence it went to Lyme, Saybrook, and East Haddam, — the same 
desjaatch passing on with its various endorsements, and arousing the coun- 
try to arms. 

A convention of delegates from New London and Windham counties 
met at Norwich Sept. 8, 1774, in order to consult upon measures for the 
common welfare. The result of their proceedings was an earnest recom- 
mendation that the towns should supply themselves with a full stock of 
ammunition and military stores, — that all officers and soldiers should be 
well armed and equipped, — that men should be collected and drilled, and 
skill in the art of war should be cultivated. Of this meeting the Hon. 
Gurdon Saltonstall was chairman, and Col. WiUiam Williams of Lebanon, 
clerk. 

In October, the General Court of the Colony ordered that all the mihtia 
should be called out for drill twelve half-days before the next May. No 
regiment of militia had at this time ever been reviewed east of Connecti- 
cut river ; the trainings had all been by companies. 

There was no regular uniform for the militia of the State at that period, 
nor for many years afterward. Rifle frocks and overalls were much worn, 
mostly white with colored fringes. One of the words of command in train- 
ing was, " Blow off the loose corns ; " and before and after the command 
to " Poise arms," came " Put your right hand to the firelock," — "Put your 
left hand to the firelock." An odd kind of aspirate was sometimes used 
after a command; thus, "Shoulder! hoo!" The great object in the 
exercises then was to make the soldier familiar with his gun ; that he 
might charge quick and aim sure. Now the trainings consist much more 
in maneuvering, wheeling, marching, &c. Instead of firelock, arms is 
used. 



378 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

At a field review in May, 1774, Norwich had four companies, under the 
following officers : 

1st Company — Jedidiah Huntington, Captain. 
Jacob Perkins, Jr., Lieutenant. 
Joseph Carew, Ensign. 

2d Company — Samuel Wheat, Captain. 

Joseph Ellis, Lieutenant. 

Isaac Griswold, Ensign. 
3d Company — Isaac Tracy, Jr., Captain. 

Jacob Witter, Lieutenant. 

Andrew Tracy, Ensign. 

4th, or Chelsea Co. — Gershom Breed, Captain. 

Benjamin Dennis, Lieutenant. 
Thomas Trap, Ensign. 

The militia at that period used the English colors ; displaying the cross 
of St George (-f ) in a field of red or blue, and sometimes the cross of 
St. Andrew (X) united with it (-Jf), in reference to the union of England 
and Scotland. After the troubles with the mother country commenced, 
objections were made to this standard, and in all probability it was not 
displayed after 1774. It is said that on a certain training day, the artil- 
lery company, composed of able men and patriots of the first stamp, had 
provided themselves with a banner bearing the arms and motto of the 
State, while the light infantry performed their evolutions as heretofore 
under the old flag. In the course of the day's exercises, being on a march 
through the town street, the artillery managed to confront the infantry, 
and planting their cannon in the way, refused them a passage unless they 
would surrender their standard. After some parleying, the royal ensign 
was lowered, rolled up, and never used again. 

In the autumn of 1774, the General Court ordered that Norwich should 
comprise the 20th regiment of infantry, and appointed Jedidiah Hunting- 
ton, Colonel ; Samuel Abbott, Lieut. Colonel ; and Zabdiel Rogers, Major. 
These officers all belonged to Norwich town-plot. Col. Huntington gave 
notice that a regimental training would be held at Norwich on the first 
Monday of the next May. But before that time arrived, a great part of 
the men were in actual service near Boston, and the review was relin- 
quished. 

When the flame of war broke forth in 1775, twenty -two regiments had 
been organized in Connecticut. In 177G they were remodeled and twenty- 
five regiments formed, and of these all but two were in actual service for 
longer or shorter terms during the summer. 

In October, 1776, Ebenezer Huntington and Jedidiah Hyde of Norwich 
were commissioned as captains, David Nevins, Simeon Huntington and 
Jacob DeWitt lieutenants, in the regular army. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 379 

Such was the unanimity of the citizens, that through the whole Revo- 
lutionary struggle their proceedings were principally town-wise. They 
were not obliged to have such continual recourse to the committees of cor- 
respondence and safety, nor to invest them with such arbitrarj^ powers as 
was done in most parts of the country. The public acts were all munici- 
pal, the dissenting voices few and weak, and very little change took place 
in laws or officers. The town was an independent community, actuated 
by a single impulse, swayed only by a Governor whom they loved, and a 
Congress which they revered. 

March 28, 1775. In full town meeting the following resolution was 
passed : 

" "Whereas numbers of persons are removing from the town of Boston to this place 
and others may remove: — Voted, that this town request the select-men and committee 
of inspection to take effectual care that none of tiie addressers to Gov. Hutchinson or 
any others who have evidenced themselves to be inimical to the common cause of 
America, be admitted or suffered to reside in this town, unless they shall produce a 
proper certificate from the Provincial Congress that they have altered their conduct in 
such a manner as to give full satisfaction." 

Among the persons alluded to in the above preamble, who at this time 
removed their families to Norwich, where they remained till after the 
evacuation of Boston by the British, and some of them during the greater 
part of the war, the names of Hubbard, Greene, Phillips, Quincy, How 
and Dorr have been preserved. 

Mr. How was the pastor of the South Church in Boston, and had for- 
merly preached in Norwich. 

Deacon Phillips occupied the Arnold house. He was one of the solid 
men of Boston, and his family came on in a coach with out-riders. The 
family of Josiah Quincy, the Boston Patriot, came with them ; Mr. Quincy 
himself being then absent on a mission to England.* 

The Hubbards and Greenes had connections in Norwich, and it was 
natural that they should remove to these well-known and retired scenes. 
Capt. William Hubbard took the house that had been long known as that 
of Col. Hezekiah Huntington, then recently deceased, and several of his 
Boston relatives, both Greenes and Hubbards, resided with liim till the 
siege was raised.f 

* The late Josiah Quincy, President of Harvard College, in conversation with a 
gentleman from Norwich, said that he distinctly remembered some of the circumstan- 
ces connected with this removal, though he was but three years old at the time. 

t It is related that when Mrs. Greene and her young daughter returned to Boston, 
Zacchary, a faithful Indian runner, made one of the retinue, carrying the cliild upon 
his slioulders in a basket which depended from a broad strap around tlie head in true 
aboriginal style. This was doubtless the easiest mode in which the child could be con- 
veyed to such a distance 



380 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Major Dorr of Boston, while tarrying at Norwicli with his family, was 
nominated by Washington as one of three commissioners who were ap- 
pointed to view the harbor of New London, and select the most eligible 
place for a fortification. 

From other places also, the population of Norwich was augmented in 
these troubled times. The Malbones came from Newport, the Moore 
family from New York ; Capt. Joseph Coit and Russell Hubbard from 
New London ; and doubtless many from other places, that have not been 
traced. 

The attention of the whole country was at this time turned towards 
Boston. The Norwich Packet was rife with such remarks as these : 

"Boston is now reduced to an alarming crisis, big with important events. Like a 
new piece of ordnance, deeply charged for the trial of its strength ; we listen with 
attention to hear its convulsed explosion, suspending ourselves in mysterious doubt, 
whether it will burst with dreadful havock, or recoil upon the engineers to their great 
confusion." 

" The blocking up of Boston is like turning the tide of a murmuring river upon the 
whole land, and thereby spreading a dangerous inundation through the continent, for 
resentment already flows high at New York, Philadelphia, and the southern towns, and 
if it join with the flux at Boston, it may occasion a sea of troubles." 

The explosion waited for in such dread suspense, at length broke upon 
the land. The battle of Lexington commenced early on Wednesday 
morning, April 19th. Gov. Trumbull was in Norwich when the news 
first arrived, which was in the afternoon of the next day.* The facts 
were greatly exaggerated and the public sympathy highly excited. Mr. 
Nevins, with his usual promptness, again mounted and proceeded to Prov- 
idence after correct information, returning on Saturday evening. Hand- 
bills were immediately struck off and dispersed through the town before 
daybreak the next morning. 

It is interesting to trace the course of intelligence flying through the 
country at that period, and in this case we have the means of noting the 
points accurately .f 

J. Palmer, one of the Committee of Safety at Watertown,' at 10 o'clock 
on that memorable day, April 19th, sends forward Israel Bissell on a 
swift horse, with a despatch to Col. Foster at Brookfield, stating that "the 
British have landed two brigades, have already killed 6 men, and wounded 
4 others, and are on their march into the country." Bissell is charged to 
alarm the people as far as the Connecticut line. At Worcester, Nathan 
Balding, town clerk, takes a copy of the despatch and forwards it to Daniel 
Tyler, Jr., of Brooklyn, Ct., who sends it by express to Norwich, where it 
arrives in the afternoon of the 20th. 

* Stuart's Life of Trumbull, p. 173. 

t Newspaper extras and private documents. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 381 

Early the next morning another express with later news arrives. This 
is from Ebenezer Williams at Pomfret, to Col. Obadiah Johnson at Can- 
terbury, who forwards it to Jedidiah Huntington. It contains the startling 
news that 50 of our people are killed and 150 of the regulars, — that is, 
"as near as they could determine when the express came away." 

On the 22d, Mr. Nevins returned with more correct accounts by way of 
Providence. 

On the 23d, (Sunday,) at 9 o'clock in the evening, an express arrived 
from "Woodstock, with despatches for the Committee of Correspondence, 
and a certified copy of a letter from General Putnam, dated at Cambridge, 
April 2 2d, evidently written under deep excitement, calling for immediate 
supplies of troops and provisions. The shades grow darker with each 
account, and Putnam represents the invading enemy as perfectly barba- 
rian, burning houses, "killing children, and putting the muzzle of the gun 
into the mouths of sick people not able to move, and blowing their heads 
to pieces."* 

Volunteers were now almost daily departing for the army at Cambridge, 
in squads of two, three, and four, and regularly organized companies were 
not far behind. In April, 1775, the Legislature ordered six regiments to 
be enlisted and equipped without delay. The term of enlistment was 
seven months. These regiments were raised by volunteers from the reg- 
ular militia almost with a rush. In May, a company of 100 from Nor- 
wich, enlisted and accoutered under the superintendence of the veteran 
Durkee, left for the scene of action in charge of Lieut. Joshua Hunting- 
ton. These were annexed to Col. Putnam's regiment. 

This company departed May 2od, and that same night a company from 
Saybrook arrived and encamped on the plain, marching early on the 24th. 
On the 25th, Capt. Coit's company from New London passed through the 
town, hastening forward, impatient to face the foe. 

A company went from Preston nearly at the same time, under officers 
that all rose during the war to the rank of majors and colonels : Edward 
]\Iott, captain ; Benjamin Throop and Jeremiah Ilalsey, lieutenants ; Na- 
than Peters, ensign. 

Early in June, a second company, raised and drilled in the town-plot at 
Norwich, marched for Boston, and was annexed to the 6th regiment, com- 
manded by Col. Parsons. Samuel Gale, captain ; Josiah Baldwin and 
Elislia Lee, lieutenants ; David Nevins, ensign. 

Two additional regiments were raised in the eastern part of Connecti- 
cut in July, under Colonels Jonathan Latimer of New London and Jedi- 
diah Huntington of Norwich. Rev. John Ellis of the West Earms was 
chaplain of Huntington's regiment, and Philip Turner surgeon. Two 



* These atrocities were then currently reported, but the British officers indignantly 
denied that any such were perpetrated. 



382 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

companies went from Norwich, commanded by Asa Kingsbury and Joseph 
Jewett. 

Phineas Lyman Tracy, son of Dr. Elisha Tracy, was ensign in Kings- 
bury's company, and a young man of great ability and promise. He died 
at Roxbury during the siege of Boston, before he had attained the age of 
twenty-one years. 

Capt. Jewett was son-in-law to Dr. Theophilus Rogers. He was taken 
prisoner at Flatbush, Aug. 31, 1776, and barbarously slain with his own 
sword after he had surrendered. 

A part of these recruits fought at Bunker's Hill. Major Durkee's com- 
pany, in the retreat from thence, according to the commissary's report, lost 
twenty guns and forty blankets. 

These regiments passed the next winter on Prospect and Cobb's Hill, 
pressing the siege of Boston. They were transferred to New York in 
March ; were engaged in the battles at Brooklyn and Haerlem Heights ; 
endured all the hardships of the retreat through the Jerseys, and fought 
at Germantown, before their term of service expired. Many of these 
first volunteers served during the whole war, gradually acquiring an hon- 
orable rank and reputation in the army. 

The great number of volunteers enlisting into the Continental service, 
left the militia ranks scanty and inefficient. In October, 1776, the 20th 
regiment was ordei'ed to take position at Rye, for the defence of the State. 
A return of the regimental roll,* the first week after their arrival at Rye, 
(Oct. 11th,) shows eleven companies present, but no one company with 
more than 22 privates. Major Zabdiel Rogers was in command of the 
regiment, and the captains were Jacob and Joseph Perkins, Wheat, John- 
son, Stephens, Wight, Waterman, Lathrop, Brewster, Leffingwell, and 
McCall. Total on duty, 176. 

The following order from Washington to Colonel Rogers, who was then 
with his regiment at Rye, has been preserved :t 

Oct. 21, 1776. 
Sir. You are hereby requested to make the best stand you can with the Troops 
under your command against the Enemy, who I am informed are advanced this morn- 
ing on Mamaronck, and I will as soon as possible order a party to attack them in flank 
of which you shall be fully informed in proper time. — Be cautious of mentioning the 
design. I am your most obedient servant, 

G. WASHINGTON. 

* Preserved in MS. 

t The original is in the possession of Miss Olivia Tyler, a great-grand-daughter of 
Col. Rogers. Only the signature is in the hand of Washington. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

BiRDS-ETE View of a Scene in Nokwich. 1775. 

Suppose it to be that Sunday in June M-hich succeeded the battle of 
Bunker Hill. It is 10 o'clock, and the second bell has just commenced 
ringing. The inhabitants are gathering slowly and solemnly to the house 
of worship. From Bean Hill come a throng of Backuses, Hydes, Rog- 
erses, Wheats, Tracys, Watermans, Griswolds. Here and there is a one- 
horse chaise, almost large enough for a bed-room, square-bottomed, and 
studded with brass nails, looking something like a chest of drawers or an 
antique book-case on wheels. Doctor TJieophilus Rogers and his wife 
Penelope occupy one of these vehicles. Major Zabdiel Rogers holds in 
his impatient charger to keep pace with them. The brothers Thomas, 
with their families, join the downward train. 

Those stout-looking men on horseback, with women and children upon 
pillions behind, are reputable farmers from Waweekus and Plain Hills. 
That young man with such erect form and attractive countenance, is Dr. 
Elihu Marvin, unconscious that he alone of all this population is to be the 
victim of a future pestilence, that will nearly desolate a neighboring city. 
That one with the staid demeanor and grave aspect, whose hair is already 
silvered with age, is Deacon Griswold, destined to live nearly to the con- 
fines of another century. 

Farther down, the stream is increased by the families of the philan- 
thropic Dr. Elisha Tracy and Dr. Philip Turner, the surgeon, and Elisha 
Hyde, an enthusiastic young attorney, and Mr. Billy Waterman and Mr. 
Jo. Waterman. Many of the foot-people have turned off by the willow 
tree, and ascending the rocks, proceed by a rude pathway, once the beaten 
road that led to the ancient meeting-house upon the hill ; others pursue 
their way through the town street, winding under the eaves of precipitous 
rocks till tliey reach the church. 

But see, from opposite quarters are advancing the Lathrops, Hunting- 
tons, Leflingwells, Tracys, Adgates, Blisses, Reynoldses, Baldwins, Pecks, 
Trumbu'ltS^c. Dudley Woodbridge, clerk of the committee of inspec- 
tion, is a conspicuous personage. Samuel Tracy is accompanied by hia 
wife Sybil, and his young family. Deacon Simon Huntington is here in 



384 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

his three-cornered hat and white wig, walking gravely with a staff. You 
may see other men in white wigs, some five or six in all. Dr. Daniel 
Lathrop wears one : he rides to meeting in a chaise with a negro driver 
in front, — his dignified companion, the daughter of Gov. Talcott, sitting 
by his side. 

There comes the Hon. Samuel Huntington, Judge of the Superior Court 
and recently elected member of the Continental Congress, with his wife 
and their adopted children. There too is the patriotic Gen. Jabez Hunt- 
ington, and those of his sons whom the Lexington war-cry has not yet 
called to the field, and the family of the late Hon. Hezekiah Huntington, 
and Benjamin Huntington, the worthy patriot and clerk, and other Hunt- 
ingtons and Lathrops and Tracys innumerable. 

The names of Fanning, Townsend and Carpenter have their represent- 
atives here. Seth jMiner, Jabez Perkins, Silas Goodell, Dr. Jonathan 
Marsh, Jesse Brown, will be in their customary seats. Aaron Cleveland, 
a deep thinker ; William Hubbard, with large heart and open hand ; "Wil- 
liam Pitt Turner, the wit and rhymester ; the printers, Robertson, Trum- 
bull, Spooner ; the Morgans, Bushnells, and Starrs, from the Great Plain, 
— all assemble at the sound of the church-going bell. 

Around the Plain, every threshold seems to be simultaneously crossed. 
The two taverns kept by Azariah Lathrop and Joseph Peck pour forth a 
goodly number. Mr. Ben. Butler and his family and Mr. Joseph Carew 
are coming up on one side, and Mr. Elly Lord and his two daughters are 
just passing the court-house. And see, the pareonage door opens, and the 
venerable pastor comes forth, and slowly walks to the church and up the 
broad aisle, tottering as he ascends the pulpit stairs. How reverend are 
the curls of that white wig ! The very wig which he wore some twenty 
years previous, when the old Rogerene so abusively followed him into 
meeting, exclaiming : " Benjamin ! Benjamin ! dost thou think that they 
wear white wigs in heaven ! " And again : " Benjamin ! thou art a sinner ! 
thou wearest a white wig ! " 

Below the pulpit, in the broad aisle, are chairs and cushioned benches, 
where a few old people sit. The gallery is filled with the young, and with 
a choir of singers, which, though mainly made up of young people, have 
several grave men and women for their leaders. 

The services commence ; the sermon contains many pointed allusions 
to the critical state of affairs, and eyes sparkle and hearts throb as the 
pastor sanctifies the cause of liberty by mingling it with the exercises of 
religion, and justifies resistance to oppression by arguments from scripture. 
Just as the sermon is finished, a loud shout is heard upon the plain, the 
trampling of a hurried horse, an outcry of alarm, which brings the audi- 
ence upon their feet : uproar enters the porch, the bell is violently rung, 
several persons rush into the body of the church, and amid the confusion 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 385 

nothing can be heard, but "A battle ! a battle has taken place on Bunker 
Hill ! The British are beat ! Hurrah ! hurrah ! " The meeting is broken 
up amid noisy shouts of "Huzza for Boston ! Huzza for Liberty! " The 
audience rush out upon the plain, and gather round the panting coui'ier; 
his despatches are read aloud ; rejoicing and indignation, patriotism and 
military fire, hatred of British tyranny and defiance of British power, 
take the place of those quiet, devotional feelings, with which they assem- 
bled together. 

That night, bells were rung, cannons were fired, bonfires blazed far and 
wide, and the Tree of Liberty was decked with triumphant devices. En- 
listments too were begun, arms were burnished, addresses made, and tories 
insulted ; nor even by these and a hundred other exuberant demonstra- 
tions of excited feeling, could the agitated minds of the people be scarcely 
appeased. 

Among the audience that day, was a poor German basket-maker named 
John Malotte, a deserter from the English army that took Canada, some 
few years before, who, wandei'ing through the wilderness, had come down 
into the northern part of Norwich, and there pursued the humble occupa- 
tion which he followed in his native land, befor#he had been impressed as 
a soldici', and sent aAvay to fight the battles of a foreign power. He was 
at this time but a spectator of the enthusiasm of others, but he, too, loved 
liberty ; he treasured up the scene, and more than forty years afterwards 
described it for the amusement of a child, in such vivid colors that the 
above picture is but a remembered transcript of his recollections. 

Undoubtedly there were some among the audience who did not cordially 
sympathize with these patriotic proceedings, and would therefore be stig- 
matized as tories and grumbletonians. The brothers Robertson, printers 
of the Norwich Packet, were perhaps of this number. We may join with 
them Mr. Thomas Leflingwell and Mr, Benjamin Butler, both men of 
talent and respectabTHtyTwho remained loyal to the king during the whole 
contest. They were of course exposed to many insults, public and pri- 
vate, prosecuted, imprisoned, threatened with the skimmerton, and their 
goods impressed. 

Mr. Butler was arrested and imprisoned in 177G, on a charge of "de- 
faming the Honorable Continental Congress." His trial came on before 
the Superior Court at New London, and the fact being proved, he was 
prohibit(Ml from wearing arms, and declared incapable of holding office. 

IMr. Butler regarded this sentence with indifference. He was a man of 
strong sense and original humor, and his company was much sought after 
on that account. He died of a lingering disease in the year 1787. A 
few years before, while in good health, he had selected a sapling, to have 
his coffin made of it when it should grow large enough ; but finding that 
it increased too slowly, he had the coffin constructed of other wood, and. 
25 



386 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

kept for a long time this affecting memento of his end constantly in his 
chamber. As he pined away, he would frequently put his hands upon his 
knees and say, " See how the mallets grow ! " He lies interred in the 
Norwich grave-yai'd ; his wife Diadema, and his two daughters, Rosamond 
and Minerva, repose by his side. "Alas, poor human nature ! " is the ex- 
pressive motto engraved by his own direction upon his head-stone.* 

Gol. Eleazar Fitch, whose home was in Lebanon, but who was inti- 
mately connected, socially and in the way of business, with Norwich, was 
also a noted loyalist. He had served in the French war under British 
officers, and was devotedly attached to the king's service. He therefore 
resisted the uprising in favor of liberty, and went into exile, settling at 
St. John's, New Brunswick. The wives of four citizens of Norwich, viz., 
Ebenezer Backus, Erastus Backus, Ebenezer Whiting, and Hezekiah 
Perkins, were his daughters. 

A little later in the same season, Norwich Green witnessed another 
Sabbath excitement growing out of the conflict that had commenced. On 
the Gth of August, 1775, a courier arrived in the midst of divine service, 
and proclaimed in the meeting-house porch that three men-of-war and 
eleven transports had appitered in the Sound, and were plying near Fish- 
er's Island, just opposite New London harbor. The exercises ceased, the 
congregation rushed forth, and in the course of an hour a throng of able- 
bodied men were on their way to New London, prepared to assist in 
repelling an attack if any should be made. 

It proved to be a foraging expedition sent out by the British, Avho then 
occupied Boston. The enemy destroyed all the shipping that came in 
their way, plundered Fisher's Island and the neighboring coast of Long 
Island of their stock, and departed. 

* Minerva Denison, the wife of Commodore John Rodgers, was a grand-daughter 
of Mr. Butler. She was born at Norwich in 1784. The present Commodore John 
Rogers, U. S. N., is her son. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Norwich during the Seven Years War for Liberty. 1T75-1T8o. 

In November, 1775, Dr. Benjairiin Churcli was sent by Geii. Wash- 
ington under a strong guard to Gov. Trumbull at Lebanon, with an order 
from Congress that he should "be closely confined hi some secure gaol in 
Connecticut, without pen, paper, or ink, and that no person should l>e 
allowed to converse with him, except in the presence and hearing of a 
magistrate or a sheriff of tbe county where he should be confined, and in 
the English language, until further orders." 

Gov. Trumbull directed that he should be kept in custody at Norwich, 
in charge of Prosper Wetmore, sheriff of New London county. Here 
he was detained during the winter in strict and cheerless seclusion. Mr. 
Edgerton, the gaoler, was directed to build a higli picket fence around the 
prison, and even wdthin this inclosure Dr. Church was not permitted to 
walk but once a week, and then with the sheriff at his side. This was 
harsh discipline to a man accustomed to a luxurious, independent style of 
living. 

Dr. Church was a Boston physician of considerable literary abilify, who 
had written songs and delivered orations in favor of American liberty, and 
had been a member of tin? Provincial Congress in 1774. He was an 
associate of Warren and other [)atriots ; but in September, 1775, a letter 
written by him in cipher to his brother in Boston was intercepted and the 
contents found to be of a character so questionable that he was arrested 
and tried for holding a ti'casonable correspondence with the enemy. The 
letter, though it contained no positive treason, seemed to emanate from 
one who was feeling his way to treachery and dishonor. 

Dr. Church was kept in Norwich until the 27th of May, 1776, when 
by order of Congress he was sent to Watertown, Mass. About the same 
time he obtained permission to retire to the West Indies, but the vessel in 
which he embarked was never heard of afterwards. 

Norwich and some other towns in the eastern part of the State, remote 
from the sea-coast, were often chai'ged with the safe-keeping of tories and 
other prisoners of war. Items like the following may be gathered from 
newspapers and public records : 



888 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Aug. 26, 1776. Last Saturday a number of gentlemen torics* were brought to 'New 
London and sent from hence to Norwich. 

— Ten persons arrested at New York and first imprisoned in Litchfield gaol hare been 
transferred to Norwich. 

Feb. 22, 1777. John L. C. Rome Esq. of New York, confined as a tory at Norwich,. 
Tsras released on his parole to return on request of the Covemor and Council. 

In August, 1776, the sheriff removed from New London to Prestore 
twenty persons arrested in Albany for toryism. They remained at Pres- 
ton for several months, and were allowed to live as they chose at their own 
expense, most of them paying for their board by their labor. The tory 
prisoners at Norwich were often distributed in private families and allowed 
their liberty within certain limits. 

In March, 1782, a company of sailors, eight or ten in number, that had 
been taken in an English privateer, and sent ?ip from New London for 
safe-keeping, broke out of jail in the night, and after lurking three or four 
ditys in the woods uncaught, succeeded in reaching New London, and by 
stealth got possession of a fine new coasting-sloop, just fitted for a voyage 
and fastened to one of the wharves, with which they escaped. ■ 

The large number of tories arrested during the earlier years of the war 
suggests one of the great trials that beset the patriot cause: secret enemies^ 
opponents at home, were like thorns in the side, or serpents in the bosom. 
They were often arrested, but seldom kept long in durance. After the 
detention of a few days or weeks, they were generally dismissed, on giv- 
ing bonds to return when called for, or upon taking oath not to bear arms 
ao-ainst the country or to aid and comfort the enemy in any way. 

In the summer of 1775, a battery or redoubt was built below the Land- 
ing on Waterman's Point. Benjamin Huntington and Ephraim- Bill were 
directors of the work, but the labor was mostly performed hj Capt. Lyon'a 
company of militia,! that had been sent to Norwich on an alarm of inva- 
sion from vessels prowling in Long Island Sound. When the work was 
completed, four six-pounders were brought from New London, and a reg- 
ular guard and watch kept. For further defence of the place, two wrought 
iron field-pieces and several other pieces of ordnance were mountedj, 
manned, and placed in the charge of Capt. Jacob DeWitt. 

William Lax established a manufactory of gun-carriages in town, and 
succeeded so well as to be employed by the State to furnish apparatus for 

* In the accounts of the State Pay Table there is a startling item of £658 10s. 2d., 
drawn by J. Huntington of Windham, /or nan and coffee, furnished to prisoners under 
his charge in August, 1777. This might lead us to conclude that either thtse gentlemen 
tories were very numerous, or that they were slightly luxurious in their habits and had 
uncommonly indulgent wardens. Bat it is probable that the amount is given in a de- 
preciated currency. 

t Capt. Ephraim Lyon of Col. Putnam's regiment. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 3S9 

mticl-i of the cannon used by them. Elijah Backus, Esq., at his forges 
apon the Yantic, manufactured the eliip anchors used for the State's armed 
vessels, two of which weighed 1200 lbs. each. He afterwards engaged in 
the casting of cannon. Samuel Noyes made and repaired guns and bay- 
■onets for the light-infantry. 

Capt. Ephraim Bill, of Norwich, was in the service of the State as a 
marine agent, and Capt. Jabez Perkins as contractor and dispenser of the 
public stores. The Governor and Council of Safety sometimes held their 
sessions in town. 

Norwich was admirably situated to serve as a port of refuge to which 
vessels could retiixi and discharge their cargoes in safety. In July, 1775, 
the brig Nancy, owned by Josiah Winslow, a well-known royalist of Bos- 
ton, having on board eighteen or nineteen thousand gallons of molasses, 
was forced by stress of weather into Stonington harbor. It was no sooner 
known at Norwich that she had anchored near the coast, than her capture 
was decreed. Witliout waiting for the State authority, but with the sanc- 
tion of the Committee of inspection, a spirited band of volunteers, in a 
large sloop commanded by Capt. Robert Niles, proceeded forthwith to 
-Stonington, Vvhere they took possession of the vessel, and brought her, 
with the cargo, round to Norwich. They then made report of the atiair 
to the Governor and Council, who approved of their proceedings, and 
■sequest<3red the priee for the use of the State. 

The tory molasses, as it was called, proved a valuable acquisition. It was 
■doled out to hospitals, and used as a medium of exchange for public pur- 
poses. Molasses was a commodity which could only be obtained by cap- 
ture, and the want of it was one of the home felt privations of the war.* 

The scarcity of sugar and molasses continued for several years. Va- 
.rious were the substitutes contrived. Corn-stalk molasses is no myth or 
icarieature, but a veritable resource of those trying times, and probably the 
best substitute that was brought into use. The stalks were cut when the 
ears of corn were just ripe for roasting or boiling, thrown into a mill, the 
juice pres&cd out and then boiled down until it became a tolerable syrup- 
It served at least to satisfy the natural craving of the appetite for saccha- 
rine matter, some portion of which in food seems to be requisite both for 
^nourishment and delight. 

In October, 1775, another merchant vessel was seized under circum- 
•.fftances similar to those of the Nancy. She had a cargo of 8,000 bushels 

* By the side of this fact, <an order of tho Geveraor and Council, May 4, 1777, for 
Jthe distillation of 40 hhds. of molasses into New England rum does n<jt appear very 
creditable. But spirituous liquors were then regarded as absolutely necessary to the 
Wgliest physical efficiency of soldiers and laboring men. Feb. 28, 1777, the Governor 
and Council ordered 250 hhds. of West India and New England rum to be purchased 
to supply the treOps cf th/i State. Hinman, 419, 441. 



o90 HISTORY OF NORW"ICH- 

of wheat, shipped at Baltimore for Fahnouth, England, and was steering 
toward Stonington in distress, having lost her mainmast in a storm, when 
she was seized by an armed schooner belonging to the colony, and con- 
ducted to Norwich to secare her from recapture. She was subsequently 
sold for the benefit of the country. 

A very great evil experienced daring the war, was the high price of 
salt, and the difficwlty of procuring it at any price. It was almost im- 
possible to get a sufficiency t© put up provisions for winter's use. The 
State government was obliged to send abroad for supplies of this neces- 
sary article, and distribute it to the various towns- It was then appor- 
tioned by the selectmen to the districts in proportion to their population,, 
and again dealt out by a committee to individuals. 

Whenever a quantity of salt was obtained, it was disposed of with great 
care and consideration. One of the State cruisers having taken 300 
bushelsy it wa« deposited at Norwich, and in April, 1777, the GoTemor 
and Council directed Jabez Perkins to dispose of it to inhabitants of Con- 
necticut only, to allO'W no family to purchase more than half a bushel, and 
small families to be supplied with less in proportion.* 

Three years before the peace, salt was six dollars per bushel and bohea 
tea two dollars per pounds and this in fair barter, not continental bills. 
CommoB cream-coloi'ed cups and saucere were two dollars per half-dozen. 
Many persons in comfortable circumstances drank their daily beverage 
out of glazed earthen mugs. 

The scarcity of wheat was a still greater calamity. Norwich of course 
shared in the general dearth, bat the winter of 1777 appears to have beea 
her only season of actual deficiency and short allowance. The authorities 
were obliged to enforce a strict scrutiny into every man's means of sab- 
• sistence, to see that none of tlie necessaries of life were withheld from a 
famishing community by monopolizers aisd avaricious engrossers. Each 
family was visited, and an account of the grain in- their possession, com- 
puted in wheat, was taken. The surplusage, down to the quantity of four 
quarts, was estimated. One hundred and twenty-six families were at one 
time reported deficient, viz. : 

" 42 up town, 26 down toyni, 12 West Farms and Poi-tSpaug, 2 Newent and Hano- 
Tcr, 9East Society, 27 Chelsea, 8 Boarah." 

The following certificate is f^lso upon record, and thoagh without date^^ 
belongs to this season : 

This may certify, tliat the wliele mimber of inhabitants in ths town of Norwich is- 
hungry ; for the quantity of grain computed in wheat is scanty ; the deficiency amounts 
to a great many bushels, as pr return of the selectmen unto my office, agreeable to the 
act of assembly. Certified by Galettia Simpson. 

* Hinmaja's. Am. Rev., p. 431,441.. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 391 

These facts in regard to the scant supply of the necessaries of life apply 
only to the earlier years of the war.* After 1780, the tide turned, and in 
Norwich, at least, the farms prospered, the mechanic arts flourislied, and 
there was almost a superabundance not merely of the means of living, but 
of articles of luxury and display. 

Those who remained at home, as well as those who went into actual 
service, were often called on to perform military duty. When most of 
the able-bodied men were drawn off, a Reformado corps was established, 
consisting of those whose age, infirmities, or other circumstances, would 
not allow them to become regular soldiers, and endure the fatigue of the 
camp, but who were willing to go forth on a sudden emergency. 

Early in 1776, Capt. McCall and Lieut. Jacob DeWitt enrolled and 
organized a fine company of Veteran CJuards for home service, and defence 
of the State, should it be invaded. These were well equipped with arms 
in readiness for sudden emergencies. On the 12tli of August, 1776, Gov. 
Trumbull issued an order to Capt. McCall to convene his company, and 
enlist as many as were willing, and to make up with others a company, 
not less than 93, and march immediately to New York, in the most con- 
venient manner by land or water, and there join the 19th regiment of 
Connecticut militia. This order was in consequence of a pressing requisi- 
tion from Gen. Washington for reinforcements. 

The Veteran Guards wei'e subsequently often called out on short toui'S 
of duty upon alarms near the sea-coast, at New London, Lyme, or Ston- 
ington. 

Li 1779, a company under Capt. Ebenezer Lathrop, and another under 
Capt. Ziba Hunt of Newent, performed tours of duty at New London. 

In 1777, Connecticut raised eleven regiments: nine for Continental 
service, and two for the defence of the State. Col. Jcdidiah ILmtington 
and Col. John Durkee of Norwich commanded two of the Continental 
regiments. 

The army was in a great measure dependent upon importations from 
France, for a sufficiency of arms and ammunition. The following vote of 
the Governor and Council of Connecticut alludes to a fresh supply of these 
necessary equipments : 

Sept. 26, 1777. It was voted that Maj. Gen. Huntington should be desired to cause 
to be made up 15,000 musket cartridges fitted to the new French arms provided for the 
use of the Continental army, and pack them in bunches of 18 cartridges each and lodge 
them in some safe ph\cc in the town of Plainfield.t 

* At this very period of greatest scarcity, tliere was at least one distillery in opera- 
tion in the town, as we learn from the records of the War Coniinittee, or Council of 
Safety, Dec. 11, 1777, to wit : 

" Tiie Governor was desired to grant a license to Caleb Huntington of Norwich to 
distil from rye, the spirit called Geneva, to supply the inhabitants of the State as far as 
he could, provided he retail the same at a reasonable price, not to exceed 15s. per gal- 
lon." t Hinman's Rev. War. 



892 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

In the earlier periods of the contest, the town's quota of soldiers was 
always quickly raised, and the necessary supplies furnished with prompt- 
ness and liberality. The requisitions of the Governor were responded to 
from no quarter with more cheerfulness and alacrity. In September, 1777, 
when extraordinary exertions were made in many parts of New England 
to procure tents, canteens and clothing for the army, many householders 
in Norwich voluntarily gave up to the committee of the town all that they 
could spare from their own family stock, either as donations, or where 
that could not be afforded, at a very low rate. The ministers of all the 
churches, on Thanksgiving day, exhorted the people to rememher the 'poor 
soldiers and their families. 

Every year while the war continued, persons were appointed by tbfe 
town to provide for the soldiers and their families at the town expense ; 
but much also was raised by voluntary contributions. The following 
items from contemporary newspapers furnish examples : 

" On the last Sabbath of December, 1777, a contribution was taken up in the several 
parishes of Norwich, for the benefit of tlie officers and soldiers who belonged to said 
town : when they collected 

386 pr. of stockings, 208 pr. of mittens, 
227 pr. of shoes, 11 buff caps, 

118 shirts, 15 pr. of breeches, 

78 jackets, 9 coats, 

48 pr. of overalls, 22 rifle frocks, 

19 handkerchiefs and £258 17s. 8rf. in money, which was forwarded to the army. Also 
collected a quantity of pork, cheese, wheat, rye, Indian corn, sugar, rice, flax, wood, 
&c. to be distributed to the needy families of the officers and soldiers. The whole of 
which amounted to the sum of £1400." 

Norwich, Feb. 15, 1779. 

Yesterday a contribution was made at the Eev. Dr. Lord's meeting, for the distressed 
inhabitants of Newport, which have lately arrived from Providence, when the sum of 
three hundred dollars was collected for their relief. 

March, 1780. 

Mrs. Corning (wife of Mr. Joseph Corning now a prisoner with the enemy) being 
destitute of necessary clothing for her children, a number of tlie ladies of Chelsea, of 
the first character and respectability, appointed a day on which they assembled and 
spent the same in spinning, after which they presented Mrs. Corning with the yarn to 
a considerable amount. 

The situation of New London was one of constant alarm, in which all 
the surrounding towns participated. It was menaced in December, 1776, 
when the hostile fleet found a rendezvous among the small islands in the 
Sound, previous to taking possession of Newport. All the militia in the 
eastern part of the State turned out to oppose the expected descent. It 
was observed, as band after band marched into New London, that "^o 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 398 

company, in order and equipments, equaled the Light Infantry of Nor- 
wich, under the command of CoL Chr. LeffingvvelL Many times during 
the war, the militia were summoned to New London or Stonington, on 
the appearance of an armed force, or the rumor of one. If a hostile ves- 
sel entered the Sound, no one knew its commission, and the alarm was 
quickly spread from the seaboard into the country. The dreaded foe per- 
haps hovered near the coast a few hours, made some startling feints, and 
tlien passed away. Orders were given and countermanded, and the wea- 
ried militia, hastily drawn from their homes, returned again without hav- 
ing had the satisfaction of seeing the enemy, or of arriving on the spot 
before the danger was over. 

Detachments from the Continental army frequently passed through 
Norwich. In 1778, a body of French troops, on the route from Provi- 
dence to the south, halted there for ten or fifteen days, on account of sick- 
ness among them. They had their tents spread upon the plain, while the 
sick were quartered in the court-house. About twenty died and were 
buried each side of the lane that led into the old burying-yard. No stones 
were set up, and the ground was soon smoothed over so as to leave no 
trace of the narrow tenements below. 

Gen. Washington passed through Norwich in .June, 1775, on his way 
to Cambridge. It is probable that he came up the river in a packet boat 
with his horses and attendants. He spent the night at the Landing, and 
tlie next day pursxied his journey eastward. In April, 177G, after the 
evacuation of Boston by the enemy, the American troops being, ordei'ed 
to New York, came on in detachments by land, and crossing the Shetucket 
at the old fording-place below Greeneville, eml>arked at Norwich and New 
London, to finish the route by water. Gen. Washington accompanied one 
of the parties to Norwich, and met Gov. Trumbull by appointment at Col. 
Jedidiah Huntington's, where they dined together, and the General that 
evening resumed his route to New York, going down to New London by 
land. 

The inhabitants also had an opportunity of seeing La Fayette, Steuben, 
Pulaski, and other distinguished foreigners in our service. There were 
some who long I'emembered tlie appearance of the noble La Fayette, as 
he passed through the place on his way to Newport. He had been there 
before, and needed no guide ; his aids and a small body-guard were with 
him, and he rode up to the door of his friend. Col. Jedidiah Huntington, 
in a ([uick gallop. He wore; a blue military coat, but no vest and no 
stockings ; his boots being short, his leg was conse ^ueiitly left bare for a 
considerable space below the knee. The speed with wliich he was trav- 
eling, and the great heat of the weather, were sv ficient excuses for this 
negligence. He took some refreshment and hastened forward. 

At another period, he passed through with a detachment of 2,000 men 



394 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

under his command, and encamped them for one night upon the plain. 
In the morning, before their departure, he invited Mr. Strong, the pastor 
of the place, to pray with them, which he did, the troops being arranged 
in three sides of a hollow square. 

Nearly fifty years afterwards, Aug. 21, 1824, the venerable La Fayette 
again passed through Norwich. Some old people, who remembered him, 
embraced him and wept ; the General wept also. 

At one time during the war, the Duke de Lauzun's regiment of hussars 
was quartered in Lebanon, ten miles from Norwich. Col. Jedidiah Hunt- 
ington invited the officers to visit him, and prepared a handsome entertain- 
ment for them. They made a superb appearance as they drove into town, 
being young, tall, vivacious men, with handsome faces and a noble air, 
mounted upon horses bravely caparisoned. The two Dillons, brothers, 
one a major and the other a captain in the regiment, were particulai-ly 
distinguished for their fine forms and expressive features. One or both 
of these Dillons suffered death from the guillotine during the French 
Revolution. 

Lauzun was one of the most accomplished but unprincipled noblemen 
of his time. He was celebrated for his handsome person, his liberality, 
wit, bravery ; but more than all for his profligacy. He was born in 1747, 
inherited great wealth and high titles, and spent all -his early years in 
alternate scenes of dissipation and traveling. He engaged in no public 
enterprise till he came to America and took part in the Revolutionary 
contest. The motives which actuated this voluptuous nobleman to this 
undertaking are not understood ; very probably the thirst for adventure, 
and personal friendship for La Fayette. He had run the career of pleas- 
ure to such an extent that he was perhaps willing to pause awhile and 
restore the energy of his satiated taste. Certain it is, that he embarked 
in the cause of the Americans with ardor, bore privations with good tem- 
per, and made himself very popular by his hilarity and generous expend- 
iture. 

After Lauzun returned to Europe, he became intimate with Talleyrand ■ 
and accompanied him on a mission to England in 1792, where one of his 
familiar associates was the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. On 
the death of his uncle, the Duke de Biron, he succeeded to the title, quar- 
reled with the court, and became a partizan of the Duke of Orleans, 
Afterwards he served against the Vendeans, but being accused of secretly 
favoring them, was condemned, and executed the last day of the year 1793. 
Such was the future s ormy career of tliis celebrated nobleman, who, as 
already mentioned, in *he midst of friends and subordinates, enjoyed the 
banquet made for him l^y Col. Huntington. After dinner the whole party 
went out into the yard in front of the house, and made the air ring with 
huzzas for Liberty ! Numerous loungers had gathered around the fence 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 895 

io get a sight of these interesting foreigners, with whom they conversed 
in very good Enghsh, and exhorted to live free, or die for Liberty. 

It is well known tliat during the Revolutionary war attempts were 
made to regulate the prices of articles by public statutes, in order to reduce 
the quantity of the circulating medium. In Connecticut, prices were fixed 
by the civil authorities of each town, in all cases not determined by acts 
of Assembly. 

April 7, 1777. Voted, strictly to adhere to the law of the State regidating the prices 
of llie necessaries of life; and we do resolve with cheerfulness to exert our best orideay- 
ours within our sphere, to support the honor of that good and salutary law. 

Dec. 29. Voted, that the town consider the articles of confederation and perpetual 
union proposed by the Continental Congress wise and salutary. 

1778. Abstract of instructions to the representatives of the town : 

1. To use their influence to hare taxes more equitable. 

2. To have bills of credit called in. 

3. Forfeited estates confiscated. 

4. The yeas and nays on all important questions published. 

5. Profane swearing punished by disability to sustain offices. 

Oct. 1. Voted, to present a memorial to the General Assembly, praying for a just 
and equitable system of taxation and rcpresentation. 

Extract from the memorial : 

" The Poll-tax your memorialists consider at the present day, an insupportable bur- 
den on the poor, while a great part of the growing estate of the rich is by law exempt 
from taxation. The present mode of representation is also objected to by your memo- 
rialists. They believe all who pay taxes and are of sober life and conversation, ought 
to have a voice in all public communities, where tlieir monies and properties are dis- 
posed of for public uses." 

It is not surprising that the subject of taxation should be one of exciting 
interest in a community who were annually paying 6rf., 9c/. and I'ld. on 
the pound for the use of the army. At one time in Connecticut, when the 
currency was at par, a rate of even 14(Z. was necessary to meet the exi- 
gencies of the treasury. 

The town afterwards presented another petition to the Assembly, the 
substance of which was, that every kind of i)ropcrty, and that only, should 
be the object of taxation. This general principle, they say, is in their 
view the only equitable one. Committees were sent to several neighbor- 
ing towns, to get their minds on the subject, and they at length resolved 
to publish, at the expense of the town, the prevalent views of the citizens 
on taxation, in the form of a letter to the freemen of the State, a copy of 
it to be sent to every town. In this letter the deficiencies of the existing 
system were ably pointed out. 



Sy6 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

" By the present system, six of the poorest swine a year old are rated equal to £100 
in cash at interest, and 30 sixch swine equal to a house of £1000. The meanest horse, 
«ven 30 years old, is on a par with the best in his prime. An acre of the best land is 
rated no higher than the poorest that is arable in the State. 

" Industry, which ought to be encouraged, is doubly taxed and that in a very capri- 
cious and vague manner." 

The objections against the poll-tax were these : 

" That it is a personal tax, and ought to be paid in personal service, that is, in de- 
fending the community ; that it is a double tax, the poor man paying for his poll, 
which is the substitute for his labor, and for the avails of his labor also; that it is im- 
politic, as tending to prevent early marriages, which promote industry, frugality, and 
every social virtue." 

The committee upon this memorial were some of the choice spirits of 
Norwich, — Benjamin Huntington, Dr. Theophilus Rogers, Dr. Elisha 
Tracy, Aaron Cleveland, Jonathan Huntington, and Nathaniel Niles. 
The document has strong points, but it is not known from which of the 
members it emanated. 

Again, three years later, (1781,) the town made another effort to obtain 
their favorite measures, — the abrogation of the poll-tax, and the extension 
of the right of suffi-age. The instructions given to the representatives 
embraced the following measures : 

That polls be struck out of the tax list, or rated low. 

That all who pay taxes be allowed to vote, if of good moral character. 

That debates in the House be open. 

That absentees be fined. 

That a regular constitution be formed. 

In October, 1780, a convention was held at Hartford to consider what 
measures should be taken in regard to trade and currency. The delegates 
from Norwich were Daniel Rodman and Solomon Satford ; the committee 
to draft their instructions, Elisha Lathrop, Christop her Letfi ngwell, and 
Aaron Cleveland. They were directed to urge the loaning of money to 
Congress to defray the public expenses and prevent the necessity of a 
further emission of paper money. 

In town meeting, June 24, 1780, — 

" Voted, that a committee of fifty able, judicious men be appointed to engage fifty 
able-bodied, effective men, required of this town to fill up our complement of the Con- 
tinental Army for three years, or during the war ; each member of the committee to 
procure one soldier, and pay him twenty silver dollars bounty, over and above the 
bounty given by the state, and pay him the same annually, as long as he continues iu 
the service ; also 40s. per month in silver money, or Indian corn at 3s. per bushel, fresh 
pork at 3d. per pound, and wheat at 6s. per bushel." 

The committee were not able to carry this vote into effect : the term of 
enlistment was too long ; nor were the men raised until by a subsequent 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 397 

vote the term of service was restricted to six months. In July of the 
same year, upon a requisition of the Governor, twenty-seven more men 
were enlisted for six months, to whom the same bounty and pay were 
given. 

The General Assembly had passed an act to arrange all the inhabitants 
of the State into classes, each class to raise so many recruits and furnish 
such and such clothing and other supplies. Norwich at first refused to 
enter upon this system, and remonstrated. With great reluctance, the 
measure was at last adopted by the inhabitants, and being found to accom- 
plish the end, was continued through the war, though it was never popular 
with them. 

After recovering from the first stunning blow of the Revolution, the 
inhabitants of Norwich were not only alert in turning their attention to 
various industrial pursuits, but engaged also in the brilliant chance game 
of privateei-ing. The war, therefore, while it exhausted the strength and 
resources of neighboring towns that lay exposed upon the sea-coast, acted 
like a spur to the enterprise of Norwich. New London at the mouth of 
the river was depressed in all her interests, kept in continual alarm, and 
finally, by the blazing torch of the enemy, almost swept from the face of 
the earth ; but Norwich, securely seated at the head of the river, defended 
by her hills and nourished by her valleys, planting and reaping without 
fear of invasion or loss, not only built new shops and dwelling-houses, and 
engaged with spirit and success in a variety of new manufactures, but 
entered into ship-building, and boldly sent out her vessels to bring in 
spoils from the ocean. 

In 1781 and 1782, the tovv'n was overflowing with merchandise, both 
tropical and European.* New mercantile fii-ms were established: Daniel 
Rodman, Samuel Woodbridge, Lynde McCurdy, and others, — and lavish 
varieties of fancy texture, as well as the substantial products of almost 
every climate, were offered for sale. The shelves and counters of the 
fashionable class of shoj)s displayed such articles as superfine broadcloths, 
men's silk hose, India silks, Damascus silks, taffetas, satins, Persians, and 
velvets, blonde lace, gauzes, and chintzes. These goods were mostly ob- 
tained by successful privateering. 

Another class of merchandise, generally of a cheaper kind, and not 
dealt in by honorable traders, but covertly offered for sale in various 
places, or distributed by peddlers, was obtained by secret and unlawful 
intercourse with the enemy. 

The coast of Connecticut being entirely girdled by Long Island and 
New York, and the British and tories having these wholly under their 

* In May, 1 782, a very large stock and great variety of European goods, imported 
ill the l)rigantiiic Firebrand from Amsterdam, was sold by auction at the store of 
Messrs. Zabdicl Rogers & Co., Bean Hill. 



S'Oi 



98 



HISTORY OP NORWICH* 



control, it was very difficult to prevent the secret intercourse and traiiic of 
the two parties through the Sound. In the later years of the war espe- 
cially, a corrupt, underhand, smuggling trade prevailed to a great extent, 
which was emboldened by the indifference or connivance of the local 
authorities, and stimulated by the readiness of people to purchase cheap 
goods without asking from whence they came. Remittances for these 
goods must be made in coin, therefore they were sold only for cash, which, 
finding its way back to the enemy's lines, impoverished the country. Thus 
the traffic operated against agriculture and manufactures, against honest 
labor and lawful trade. Moreover, it nullified the laws and brought them 
into contempt, 

A"-a!n:4 this illicit traffic a strong association was formed at Norwich in 
July, 1782. The company bound themselves by solemn pledges of life, 
fortune, and honor, to support the civil authority, to hold no intercoui'se, 
social or mercantile, with persons detected in evading the laws ; to furnish 
men and boats for keeping watch in suspected places, and to search out 
and break up all deposits of smuggled goods, — such goods to be seized, 
sold, and the avails devoted to charitable purposes. 

The vigorous manner in which this company began to carry out their 
principles caused great commotion in the ranks of the guilty parties. 
Suspected persons suddenly disappeared ; sales were postponed ; goods 
which before had been openly exposed, withdrew into cellars and meal- 
chests, or were concealed in barns under the hay, and in hollow trees, 
thickets, and ravines. 

Several seizures were made during the season, but the treaty of peace 
soon put an end to this clandestine traffic, and the association had but a 
brief existence. 

Its object, however, was creditable to the patriotism and efficiency of 
the inhabitants, and a list of ihe signers gives us the names of sixty-eight 
prominent men who were on the stage of life at the close of the war, and 
all within the bounds of the present town. 



Members of the Association against Illicit Trade,* alphabeticallt 

arranged. 



Samuel Abbot, 
Elijah Backus, 
Ephraim Bill, 
Jonathan Boardman, 
John M. Breed, 
Shubael Breed, 
Samuel Capron, 
Eliphalet Carew, 
Joseph Carew, 



Simeon Carew, 
Thomas Coit, 
William Coit, 
John Crary, 
Jacob DeWitt, 
Michael Dumont, 
Tliomas Fanning, 
Jabez Fitch, 
Joseph Gale, 



Joseph Howland, 
Andrew Huntington, 
Eliphalet Huntington, 
Jonathan Huntington, 
Joshua Huntington, 
Levi Huntington, 
Simeon Huntington, 
William Hubbard, 
Eussell Hubbard & Son. 



* Conn. Gazette, Vol. 19. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



399 



Ebenezer Jones, 

Joshua Lathrop, 

Kufus Latlirop, 

Christopher Lcffingwell, 

Benajah LcffingwcU, ^ 
i Jonathan Lester, 

^iha Marvin, 

John Me Call, 

Lyndc McCurcly, 

Seth Miner, 

Thomas Mumford, 
-^Nathaniel Nilcs, 

Eobcrt Niles, 

Tiniothy Parker, 



/ 



Asa Pcahody, 
Nathaniel P. Pcabody, 
Joseph Peck, 
Andrew Perkins, 
Jabez Perkins, 
Jabez Perkins, Jr, 
Joseph Perkins, 
Joseph Perkins, Jr. 
Erastus Perkins, 
Hezekiah Perkins, 
Levi Perkins, 
Daniel Rodman, 
Thcophihis Rogers, 
Zabdicl Rogers, 



Ransford Rose, 
Andrew Tracy, Jr. 
Mandator Trac}', 
Samuel Tracy, 
Asa Waterman, Jr. 
Samuel Wheat, 
Joseph Whitmarsh, 
Benajah Williams, 
Joseph Williams, 
Jacob Witter, 
Dudley Woodbridge, 
Samuel Woodbridge, 
Alexander Youngs. 



In January, 1781, the inhabitants were divided into forty classes, to 
raise forty soldiers, which was their quota for the Continental army; and 
again, into twenty classes for a State quota to serve at Horseneck and 
elsewhere. A list of persons in each class was made out, and each taxed 
in due proportion for the pay and fitting out of one recruit, whom they 
were to procure ; two shirts, two pairs of woollen stockings, shoes and 
mittens were requisite for every soldier ; arms and uniforms were fur- 
nished by the state or country. 

Each soldier's family was in the charge of a committee to see that they 
were supplied with the necessaries of life, for which the soldier's wages to 
a certain amount were pledged. The whole number of classes this year 
to procure clothing was G6. 

In 1782, only 33 classes were inquired. 



1783. Instructions Avere given to the representatives to use their influ- 
ence with the Assembly to obtain a remonstrance against the five years' 
pay granted by Congress to the officers of the Continental army. The 
manifesto of the town on this subject was fiery, dictatorial, and extrava- 
gant. A few paragraphs will show in strong relief the characteristics of 
the people, — jealous of their rights, quick to take alarm, and sensitively 
watchful over their cherislied liberties. 

" Where is the free son of America that ever had it in idea when adopting the arti- 
cles of confederation to have pensions bestowed on those characters (if any such there 
be) whose virtue could not hold them in service without such rewards over and above 
the contract which first engaged them." 

"For a free people, just rising out of a threatening slaver}', into free shining pros- 
pects of a most glorious peace and independence, now to be taxed without their consent 
to support and maintain a large numl)cr of gentlemen as pensioners, in a time of univer- 
sal peace, is, in our view, unconstitutional and directly in opposition to the sentiment 
of the states at large, and was one great spoke in the wheel whicli moved at lirst our 
late struggle with our imperious and tyrannical foes." 



400 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

Further instructions were given at the same time to the representatives 
to urge upon the Assembly the necessity of keeping a watchful eye upon 
the proceedings of Congress, to see that they did not exceed the powers 
vested in them, and to appoint a committee at every session to take into 
consideration the journals of Congress, and approve or disapprove, ap- 
plaud or censure the conduct of the delegates. 

At no period during the war were the people of Norwich alarmed with 
the fear of a direct invasion of the enemy, except at the time of the attack 
on New London, Sept. 6, 1781. It was then rumored that Arnold, in- 
flamed with hatred against the country he had betrayed, and cherishing a 
vengeful spirit towards his native town, had determined at all hazards to 
march thither and spread desolation through the homes of his .ancient 
friends and neighbors. Preparations were therefore made to receive him ; 
goods were packed, and women and children made ready for flight. The 
llery patriots of Norwich wished for nothing more than that he should 
attempt to march thither, as it would give them a long coveted opportunity 
of wreaking tlieir vengeance on the traitor. But the undertaking was too 
hazardous ; Arnold, if he had the will, was too prudent to attempt any 
thing but a sudden and transient attempt upon the sea-board. 

The last time that the militia were called out during the war, was in 
September, 1782. A detail of the circumstances will serve as a specimen 
of the harrassing alarms which liad previously often occurred. 

Benajah Letfingwell was then lieutenant-colonel of the twentieth regi- 
ment, and at seven o'clock in the morning an express reached him Avith 
the following order : 

■J' To Major Leffingwell : I have certain intelligence that there is a large fleet in the 
Sound, designed for some part of the Main — would hereby request you without loss 
of time, to notify the regiment under your command to be ready to march at the short- 
est notice — also send expresses to New London immediately for further news, and con- 
tinue expresses as occasion may be. Your humble servant in the greatest haste, 

Samuel M'Clelland, Colonel. 
Wednesday morning, six o'clock. 

I have mucli more to say if I had time. I am on the road to Ncv^ London from 
Windham, where express came to me in the night. 

Before nine o'clock the Avhole regiment had been summoned to turn out 
with one oT two days' provisions, and be ready to march on hearing the 
alarm guns. 

The regiment upon the ground that day, as the returns of the orderly- 
book show, consisted of one field officer, thirty-five commissioned officers, 
and 758 men, in eleven companies, under the following captains : 

Joseph Carcw, Moses Stephens, Jonathan Waterman, 

Samuel Wheat, William Pride, Samuel Lovett, 

Isaac Johnson, Jabez Deraiug, Jacob DeWitt. 

Nathan Waterman, Abncr Ladd, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 401 

Orders at last came for them to march ; they wore just ready to start, 
when the order was countermanded ; again an express arrived, saying 
that the fleet appeared to be bound in, and orders were issued to stand 
ready : one hour they heard that the enemy was making preparations for 
a descent ; the next, that the fleet was moving up the Sound. Finally, 
the hostile ships having explored Gardiner's Bay, flitted out of the Sound, 
and the mihtia, after two days of harrassing suspense, were dismissed to 
their homes. 

Concerning the manner in which the inhabitants testified their joy at 
the grand results of the seven years of war, — independence achieved, and 
the restoration of peace, — no published accounts have been found. Ac- 
cording to current reminiscences, the public rejoicings were boisterous and 
extravagant. The throng of people assembled on the Green was beyond 
all precedent, and great excesses were committed in the way of rioting 
and drinking. 

But these were the revelries of an excited multitude. The demonstra- 
tions of other classes were of a deeper, nobler character. An intelligent 
lady still living (1865) remembers the celebration as the great event of 
her childhood. She describes the crowd upon the Green ; their joyous 
greetings and congratulations ; the shaking of hands, waving of flags, 
firing, drumming, shouting, and the large bonfires at night. 

The following Sabbath the church was filled with a dense crowd, all in 
their best array, smiling and happy. The choir of singers appeai'ed with 
brilliant decorations, and sung an ode adapted to the occasion, in the tune 
of Worcester, of which the following was the opening stanza : 

Behold a radiant light ! 

And by divine command, 
Fair Peace, the child of Heaven, descends 

To this afflicted land. 



26 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Marine Affairs. 1776-1783. 

In 1776, Connecticut ordered four row-galleys to be built. Three only 
were completed : the Shark, built at Norwich by Capt. Jonathan Lester ; 
the Crane, at East Haddam ; and the Whiting, at New Haven. 

Capt. Lester went to Philadelphia for the plan of the Shark. Her 
dimensions were, " sixty feet keel, eighteen feet beam, five feet hold, and 
four inches dead rising."* These galleys carried two pieces of ordnance, 
six or nine pounders, and fifty men (including officers), and were furnished 
with lances, poles, and hatchets. 

Tliey were all sent to New York soon after they were rigged and 
manned, at the request of General Washington, to be used on the Hud- 
son river. The Shark was at first commanded by Theophilus Stanton, 
but while in service at New York, by Capt. Roger Fanning. 

Capt. Lester had but just completed the Shark, when he i*eceived (July 
2d) an order from Gov. Trumbull to hasten immediately with twenty-five 
carpenters to Crown Point, to build batteaux for the Lake, upon a requi- 
sition of Gen. Schuyler. 

Capt. Robert Niles of Norwich was a ship-master of experience in the 
merchant service before the war, and one of the earliest band of Revolu- 
tionary cruisers. In July, 1775, Benjamin Huntington of Norwich and 
John Deshon of New London were appointed agents of the colony to 
charter a fast-sailing vessel to go from place to place, carry inteUigenqe, 
convey stores, and watch the enemy. They purchased the schooner Brit- 
annia at Stonington for £200, and brought her into the Thames, where 
she was fitted and furnished with a crew ; her name changed to the Spy, 
and Capt. Niles appointed her commander., His commission from Gov. 
Trumbull was dated Aug 7, 1775. The Spy was about 50 tons burden, 
carried six 4-pounders, and usually about twenty menj but sometimes 
thirty.f 

But though small in size, the Spy was invaluable in the amount of 
service she performed. She conveyed intelligence, and transported stores 

* As master-builder, his pay was one Spanish dollar per day. 
t The pay of a seaman was from 40s. to 48s. per month. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 403 

along the coast. She was sent to Maryland for flour, and to (he West 
Indies with hoops and staves to barter for island produce. Slie also took 
several rich prizes, among which was the Dolphin, a larger vessel than 
herself and more heavily armed, being of 80 tons burden, and to this 
Capt. Niles was for a short time transferred. In June, 1778, he was 
employed by the Government to carry to France an official copy of the 
ratified treaty with that kingdom, to perform which duty he again took 
command of the Spy. He arrived at Brest in twenty-one days, having 
passed undetected through a considerable British fleet that was cruising 
off the coast of France, in avoiding which he displayed the dexterity and 
vigilance of a thorough seaman. Six copies of the treaty were dispatched 
by different vessels, but this is supposed to have been the only one that 
reached its destination. Its arrival hastened the departure of recruits 
and stores that were preparing in France for the aid of the American 
cjiuse. 

The lieutenant of the Spy was Zebediah Smitli, and the last survivoi: 
of her crew was Capt. Benjamin Coit, who died at Norwic;h in 1841j>, 
aged eighty-three. He had enlisted in the naval service at the age c>f 
eighteen. 

Capt. Niles was a native of Groton ; bora in the year 173-ij, and diedj 
at Norwich in 1818.* 

Lieut. Smith was lost at sea in December, 1791. 

In the early part of the war, two other Norwich captains, Selh Hard- 
ing and Timothy Parker, by their seamanship and success reflected honor 
upon the Connecticut marine, Capt. Harding was successively in com- 
mand of the brig Defence, 14 guns, the Oliver Cromwell, 18, and the 
Confederacy, 32, all owned by the State. 

The Defence was built in 1776, at Hayden's ship-yard on the Connecti- 
cut river, under the superintendence of Capt. Harding and Bcnjaniin 
Huntington.- Capt. Ephi'aim Bill directed her rigging, and Elijah Backus 
forged her anchors. In her first trip out, 18th or 19th of June, 1776, she 
captured near the opening of Boston Bay, two British transports, a ship 
and a brig, the former with 210 soldiers, and the latter 112, belonging to 
Frazcr's Highland regiment. Col. Campbell was also among the prison- 
ers. In a subsequent cruise the same year, Capt. Harding took a mer- 
chant vessel, called the John, of 200 tons burden, with a valuable cargo 
of West India produce, and also a Guinea ship. 

Tlie Defence was afterward altered into a ship, and seems never again 
to have been very fortunate. Capt. Harding was transferred to tlie Oliver 
Cromwell, and in June, 1777, captured the brig JMedway, with stores; in 
July, the brigantine Honor, valued at £10,692 ; and in September, the 

* In 1856, Congress granted a pension to Miss Hannah Niles, the only burviving 
child of Capt. Robert Nilea. 



404 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

packet ship Weymouth, carrying 15 guns and a crew of 50 men. Capt. 
Parker, who had been Harding's first lieutenant, succeeded hira in the 
command of the Cromwell, and April 13, 1778, after a smart action, took 
the Admiral Keppel, an English letter-of-marque, mounting 18 sixes. 
Sevei'al of Capt. Pai'ker's men were wounded ; Capt. James Day, of the 
marines, mortally. The prize was sent into Boston, and sold at auction 
on the 8th of July for £22,320. 

In May, 1779, the Oliver Cromwell sailed from New London, and 
though absent only twelve days, took four prizes and brought in sixty 
prisoners. But running out again, June 1st, she encountered, June 5tb, 
off Sandy Hook, the British frigate Daphne, and after a sharp engage- 
ment of two hours, Capt. Parker seeing another vessel coming to the aid 
of the enemy, surrendered. He was soon exchanged, and reached home 
early in August, with forty-six of his men. 

The Governor Trumbull, a privateer carrying 18 or 20 guns, was built 
at Willett's ship-yard in 1777, for Howland & Coit. She was considered 
almost a model ship. Her first commander, Capt. Henry Billings, had 
been tested both for gallantry and skillful seamanship, as lieutenant of the 
armed brig Defence, and a cai-eer of brilliant success was anticipated for 
her. She sailed on her first cruise in November, 1778, and made several 
small captures, but early the next year went out under the command of 
Capt. Dudley Saltonstall, and meeting with the British frigate Venus, a 
vessel of greater size and efficiency, was obliged to surrender. Her cap- 
tors took her to the "West Indies, where she i*ecruited and was sent forth 
under a changed name and flag to prey upon her former friends. 

Before sailing, she was thus advertised in the Gazette, Nov. 17, 1778: 

" The fine new ship Governor Trumbull, Henry Billings commander, now lyinf^ in 
t'le harbor of New London, mounting 20 carriage guns, will sail in six days, &c. Ap- 
ply oil board, or to Rowland & Coit, Norwieh." 

Her capture was announced in the tory paper at New York. 

April 5, 1779. "The rebel frigate Trumbull is taken by the Venus and sent into 
St. Kitts." 

The Venus herself was originally an American ship called the Bmiker 
Hill, captured by the British, and her name changed. 

The Confederacy, a continental ship of 32 guns, was one of two frigate? 
ordered by Congress to be built in Connecticut, under the direction of the 
Governor and Council of Safety.* It was constructed at Norwich by 
Jedediah Willett, under the superintendence of Major Joshua Hunting- 
ton, who, as agent of the State, procured materials and workmen. Shf 

* The other was the Tnimbull, 28 guns, and built at Chatham in Connecticat river. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 405 

was built chiefly oi tory-timler ; the oak for her keel having been brought 
from the confiscated land of William BroAvne, in Salem, Ct.; locust trees 
for her trunnels were felled from a lot in New London, owned by a Bos- 
ton royalist ; and planks from the confiscated groves of other refugees 
performed their part in fashioning her hull and laying her deck. She was 
launched Nov. 8, 1778, and towed down the river on the 30th to be rigged 
and recruited at New London.* 

Capt. Seth Harding was the first and only American commander of the 
Confederacy. She was ordered to France, carrying as passengers, Mr. 
Jay, the American minister, and Count de Gerard, a French envoy, but 
had not been long out when she encountered a furious gale, in which she 
rolled over, lost her masts, and though she righted again, was forced to 
steer for the nearest friendly port in the West Lidies, to refit. 

The following notice is from the Martinico Gazette of Dec. 1(^^, 1779: 

" The Continental Frigate Confederacy, 40 guns, Capt. Harding, came into our road. 
She left Pliiladolphia Oct. 27, destined for France, met with a gale on tlie hanks of 
Newfoundland,! lost her masts, had six feet of water in the hold, and arrived in the 
midst of perils. The Count de Gerard, late minister from the Court of France to 
the United States, and his Excellency John Jay, who goes to represent tlie States at 
the Court of Madrid, were on board. 

" They [the ambassadors] sailed from Martinico for France Nov. 28, in tlie French 
frigate L'Aurorc." / 

The Confederacy refitted at Martinico, and returned home. She was 
next sent to Cape Francois for clothing and other supplies for the army, 
and on the homeward voyage encountered two vessels of the enemy, a 
ship of the line and a frigate, to which she surrendered June 22, 1781. 
The British slightly changed her name, calling her the Confederate, and 
sent her to England as convoy to a fleet of transports, and with nearly 
100 prisoners on board, consisting chiefly of the crews of two New Lon- 
don privateers which they had taken. 

'Ihe privateering business not only kept the harbor of New London 
lively with its shifting scenes, but gave animation to all eastern Connecti- 
cut. Many spirited seamen were gathered from the banks of the Tliames 
and of its branches. Capt. Thomas Parke, Nathan Moore, Nathan Pe- 

* In the accounts of Joshua Huntington, the charges to the ship Confederacy 
amounted to .£29,369.18.10; commission upon this, .£1,453.9.10 : total, .£''.0,823.8.8. 
A number of Indians were among the workmen, who were all paid by the day, though 
at varying rates. Uncas, Ashpow, Quoclieets, Wyox and other Mohcgnn names ap- 
pear among tlic workmen and crew. " Nick the fiddler " was also one of the " Con- 
federacy people." 

t Cooper in his Naval History says that this disaster occurred east of Bermuda, — 
which is probably a mistake. Vol. 1, p. 195. 



406 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

ters, Jeremiah Halsey, Ransford Eose, took part in the contest by cruises 
at sea, as well as by campaigns on land. 

The most extensive shipping firm in Norwich was that of Rowland & 
Coit. Jabez and Hezekiah Perkins were among the earliest cruisers of 
the war. The latter made a successful voyage to Holland and France in 
the letter-of-marque sloop Maria, of six guns, owned by Rowland & Coit. 
Capt. William Wattles performed several gallant exploits in a small pri- 
vateer sloop belonging to Norwich, called the Phenix. In one of his 
expeditions he took a brig from Europe, with a valuable cargo, and sold 
the whole in Carolina before coming home. Unfortunately he was at last 
taken by the enemy and carried to Ralifax, where most of his men lan- 
guished and died in the terrible Mill-Island prison, victims of close con- 
finement and starvation. At a later period of the war, Capt. Wattles was 
in command of the privateer Comet, and in March, 1782, on a return 
voyage from the West Indies, was captured a second time by the enemy. 
He was however soon exchanged, and in July of that year sailed for Am- 
sterdam in "the remarkable fast sailing and every way complete Letter of 
Marque brigantine Thetis." This was a prize vessel, fitted out by Row- 
land & Coit, and sent on a trading voyage to the Texel. 

The privateering business was pre-eminently one of uncertainty and 
hazard ; strikingly varied Avith quick success and sudden reverse. Most 
of the adventurers from Norwich and New London were captured, impris- 
oned and exchanged during the war, and some of them more than once ; 
for no sooner were they released from bonds than they were ready for 
another chance, — acting ever upon the obstinate principle of vp and at 
them again. 

In the AVest India trade also, safe and remunerative voyages alternated 
with loss and capture. This trade resembled the continual running of a 
blockade. Several of the Norwich ship-masters fell with their craft into 
the hands of the enemy. Of these we can name Jabez and Hezekiah 
Perkins, Thomas King, Ebenezer Lester, William Loring, Jabez Lord, 
and Elisha Lathrop. We get a few gleams of these vicissitudes from old 
account-books and the weekly newspapers. Capt. Elisha Lathrop was 
one of those who kept afloat and had a liberal share of both good and bad 
fortune. In August, 1781, while in the privateer sloop Mercury, he was 
taken and carried into New York. In February, 1782, in a trading 
voyage to Virginia, he was captured and cai'ried to Charleston, which was 
then in possession of the enemy. His next voyage was to Guadaloupe, 
which he accomplished during the summer, and returned in safety Sept. 
6th. On the 18th of October he sailed again, and the next announcement 
respecting him briefly states : 

" Capt. Elisha Lathrop in a brig from Norwich, bound to tho West Indies, is cap- 
tured and carried to Bermuda." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 407 

A few other scattered marine items belonging to tliis period may here 
find a place. 

Capt. Davison left the river in a small coasting sloop, Nov. 13, 1781, 
bound to Boston. In rounding Cape Cod, he was blown off by strong 
northerly winds, driven out to sea, and after thirty-one days ai'rived at 
Guadaloupe ; his crew in a famishing state for want of provisions. He 
encountered upon the ocean neither friend nor foe ; sold his sloop well, 
and returned in a Boston brig. 

In April, 1782, Capt. Meech of Preston in a galley from Poquetannock 
slipped into Fire Island inlet on the Long Island coast, and captured three 
British coasters, one of which he engaged to ransom for £500 ; £i 50 being 
paid upon the spot and divided among the crew. But before the victors 
could get away with their spoil, several British galleys appeared off the 
inlet, retook the prizes, and to prevent the capture of their own galley, 
the Americans scuttled and sunk her, escaping themselves by land. 

The privateer brigs Young Cromwell and Favorite were principally 
owned in Norwich, and for three years, from 1779 to 1781, were very 
successful in their trips, and brought in numerous prizes. The Cromwell 
was successively commanded by Captains Wattles, Hillard, Buddington, 
Reed, and Cook. She carried ten 3-pounders and thirty-eight men, and 
with this force captured a tory privateer called the Success, which carried 
eight 4-pounders, one 12-pounder in the bow, and forty -five men. She 
brought in her last prize Nov. 1, 1781. In her next cruise she was taken 
and her crew thrown into the New York fatal prison-ship, where seven- 
teen of the number died of pestilential fever. In May, Capt. Cook 
escaped by dropping himself overboard during the night and swimming 
to the shore, from whence he made his way home in safety. A few weeks 
afterward he embarked in the schooner Turn-of-times on a trading voyage 
to Demerara, but w^as again captured, and carried to Bermuda. 

The brig Favorite was captured in September, 1781, by the British 
frigate Iris, and sent into New York. 

In January, 1782, Capt. Thomas King sailed for the "West Indies in a 
new sloop. On the voyage a tropical storm and a hostile vessel came 
bearing down upon him at the same time. In striving to escape the enemy 
he was upset by the hurricane, and his sloop left a total wreck. He and 
his men were taken off by the British, and carried prisoners to Antigua. 

Thomas Mumford was the chief owner of the noted brig Hancock, 
Peter Richards master. This was originally a prize vessel, called by its 
British owners The Whim. 

The ship Fortune, Henry Billings, commander, was built at Norwich 
in 1781. She lay at New London, neaidy ready to sail "for Hispaniola, 
France, and a cruise," when the town and shipping were burnt by Arnold. 
The Fortune and a few other vessels escaped up the river. 



408 HISTORY OP NOKWICH. 

The following list of prize vessels sold at Norwich by auction during 
the latter part of the war, is collected from the newspapers of the day : 

July, 1779. Ship Otter of 200 tons, and sloop Lord Howe, 30 tons, with their ap- 
purtenances and cargoes. 

June 12, 1781. Ship Hunter, 200 tons, English built : bought by merchants in Mid- 
dletown, and immediately fitted at New London for a cruise ; she mounted eighteen 
siK-pounders. Brig Pontus, 90 tons, almost new. 

July 13. Brig Neptune, built in New Hampshire ; recaptured by the Young Crom- 
well; mounting 14 carriage guns. Brig Society, 150 tons; "well found and a fast 
sailer." 

Aug. 28. Ship Polly, 250 tons. Schooner Hazzard, 60 tons. Schooner Surprize, 
70 tons. Schooner Lucy, 40 tons. Schooner Favorite, a Virginia pilot-boat, 20 tona. 
Brigantine Despatch, 120 tons. 

Oct. 4. Ship Achilles, British built, 270 tons. Ship Williamson, 300 tons. 

Oct. 30. Brigantine Peggy, captured by the Young Cromwell and the Samson, — 
British built. 

Nov. 22. Letter-of marque schooner Betsey, 80 tons, Virginia built, "lately cap- 
tured by the Young Cromwell." 

1782, May 23. Sloop Polly, Virginia built, 70 tons; brigantine Alligator, 120 tons, 
and a small sloop, — all captured by the privateer Randolph. 

June 25. Brigantines William, copper-bottomed, 100 tons; Thetis, Virginia built, 
100 tons ; Catharine and Mary, and a sloop of 30 tons. 

An advertisement from the Norwich Packet may be quoted in verifica- 
tion of the statement that the direct intercourse of the Norwich merchants 
with continental Europe was not wholly intermitted during the war. 

"The prime sailing Letter-of-Marque sloop Maria, Bermuda built, mounting six 
carriage guns, Hezekiah Perkins master, will sail in about three weeks for France or 
Holland. Any persons desirous of sending bills of exchange on France, may depend 
on having them negotiated in the best manner. Apply to said Perkins, on board his 
vessel at New London, or to Howland & Coit in Norwich." — Jan. 25, 1779. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Abnold, the Traitor. Soldiers of the Revolution. 

Benedict Arnold. 

Benedict Arnold was bom Jan. 3, 1741. His parents had pre- 
viously lost a son of the same name, and of their six children, only Ben- 
edict and a daughter Hannah lived to maturity. 

Benedict Arnold, Sen., and his brother Oliver, were natives of Rhode 
Island, and coopers by trade, but became seamen, and as each had the 
title of Captain, it is inferred that they rose to the rank of ship-masters. 
They appear to have been honest, reputable citizens. Benedict took an 
interest in public affairs, serving occasionally in town offices, as collector, 
lister, surveyor, constable, and selectman. 

Soon after he came to Norwich, he married (Nov. 8, 1733,) the youth- 
ful widow of Absalom King , a woman of pleasing person and estimable 
character, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Lathrop) Waterman. The 
inscription upon her grave-stone commemorates his aflfectiouate remem- 
brance of her worth. 

In Memory of 

HANNAH 

the well beloved wife of 

Capt. BENEDICT ARNOLD 

and Daughter of 

Mr. John and Mrs. Elizabeth Waterman. 

She was a Pattern of Piety, Patience and Virtue, 

Who died Aug. 15, 1758, 

iJBtatis suae 52. 

Tradition allows that in this case the epitaph does not exaggerate the 
truth. "Benedict Arnold's mother," said one who had been connected 
with the family, "was a saint on earth, and is now a saint in heaven." 

The following is a literal copy (except in orthography) of a letter from 
her to her son Benedict, while he was at school in Canterbury : 



410 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

To Mr. Benedict Arnold at Canterbury. 
Norwich, April 12, 1754. 

Dear child. I received yours of the 1st instant, and was glad to hear that you 
was well ; pray, my dear, let your first concern be to make your peace with God, as it is 
of all concerns of the greatest importance. 

Keep a steady watch over your thoughts, words and actions. Be dut'ful upe- 
riors, obliging to equals, and affable to inferiors, if any such there be. Always choose 
that your companions be your betters, that by their good examples you may learn- 
From your affectionate mother, 

Hannah Arnold. 

P. S. I have sent you 50s. Your father put in 20 more. — use it prudently, as yoa 
are accountable to God and your father. Your father and aunt join with me in love 
and service to Mr. Cogswell and lady and yourself. Your sister is from home. 

It is lamentable to think that the son of such a mother, and the recip- 
ient of such wholesome instruction, should have become a proud, obstinate 
and unprincipled man ; leaving behind him a name and character infa- 
mous in the sight of his country, and spotted with violence, corruption 
and treason. 

Capt. Benedict Arnold, the father, died in 1761. 

The house in which Benedict was born stood about half way between 
the older part of the town and Chelsea society. It was demolished in 
October, 1853, but a few years before was in a good state of preservation, 
and exhibited in many parts, tokens of the mischievous boyhood of Ben- 
edict, in whittlings, brands and hatchet-cuts upon the beams, planks, and 
doors. The letters B. A. and B. Arnold were stamped upon it in various 
places. This house had a variety of occupants after the Arnolds left it. 
It was sold March 31, 1764, by Benedict Arnold of New Haven to Capt. 
Hugh Ledlie of Windham, (with the home-lot of five and a half acres,) 
for £700. Capt. Ledlie's wife fell into a state of deplorable insanity, 
which rendered confinement necessary, and this misfortune with its attend- 
ant circumstances, being probably exaggerated by rumor, obtained for the 
house a notorious and superstitious reputation. 

In the year 1775, Dea. William Philips, of Boston, the father of Lieut. 
Governor Philips, removed his family to Norwich, and occupied the Ar- 
nold house till after the British retired from Boston. Its next occupant 
was Mr. Malbone of Newport, who also came to .Norwich to seek a refuge 
from the bustle and violence of war. The misfortunes of this family and 
the seclusion in which they lived, rather added to the fearful character 
which the house had acquired. It was said that seven of the name, and 
all nearly connected, had died within the short period of eighteen months. 
About ten years before the family removed to Norwich, that is, in 1767, 
the brig Dolphin, of Newport, owned by one of the Malbones, and com- 
manded by another, took fire off Point Judith, as it was returning from 
Jamaica, and was entirely consumed. Such was the violence of the 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 411 

flames, and the rapidity of their -work, that all communication was cut off 
between the deck and cabin, and in the latter three ladies and two child- 
ren perished. Those on deck escaped in boats. This, and other misfor- 
tunes connected with the family, had made the name almost ominous of 
calamity. The house was afterwards occupied by Col. Moore from New 
York, the father of Eichard Channing Moore, the revered Bishop of Vir- 
ginia. The Moore family was large, and their dwelling had the reputa- 
tion of being the seat of hospitality and festive enjoyment. Col. Moore 
died at Norwich, .June 19, 1784 ; his remains were removed the next year 
to New York, and interred in Trinity church-yard. 

Two of the sons, John and Benjamin Moore, remained several years 
longer in Norwich ; the latter as a practitioner in physic. In 1790, John 
Moore was living in the Arnold house, and the census returns show that 
his family consisted of ten persons. He was then a prominent merchant 
of the place, but removed about 1793. 

The occupants of the Arnold house were so often changed, that public 
rumor ascribed it to the supernatural sounds and sights with which it was 
visited. After a short experience, the bewildered residents were glad to 
escape from the haunted premises. At length it was left tenantless for a 
short time, and then purchased and repaired by Uriah Tracy, of the firm 
of Tracy & Coit. The house had now a native occupant : the beams and 
rafters, the garden and groves, were apparently appeased. The spell was 
broken. Mr. Tracy remained in possession for a period of forty years, — 
not, however, without an alarm from the invisible world, though of a dif- 
ferent nature from the sights and sounds that had dismayed the former 
inhabitants. On a warm summer's day, Sept. 2, 1800, a thunderbolt 
descended upon the house, shattering the windows and the mirrors, and 
breaking a passage out through the Avail. This electric shock was per- 
haps necessary to purify it thoroughly from the Arnold taint.* 

To return from this digression respecting the Ai'nold house, to the 
Arnold family. No one of the name in Norwich seems to have been a 
common-place character, Benedict, when a boy, was bold, enterprising, 
ambitious, active as lightning, and with a ready wit always at command. 
In every kind of sport, especially if mischief was to be perpetrated, he 
was a dauntless ringleader, and as despotic among the boys as an absolute 
monarch. On a day of public rejoicing for some success over the French, 

* Mr. Tracy died in 1832, aged 79. His wife was a daughter of Amos Hallam of 
New London. She was a woman of quiet, amiable manners, and had been a favorite 
friend of the unfortunate Nathan Hale, but not, as has been reported, betrothed to 
him. 

The house of Mr. James L. Ripley stands near the site of the Arnold house. The 
old well and its suiToundings have not been altered, but remain as they were in the 
time of the Arnolds. 



412 HISTOKT OP NORWICH. 

Arnold, then a mere stripling, took a field-piece, and in a frolic placed it 
on end, so that the mouth should point upright, poured into it a large 
quantity of powder, and actually dropped into the muzzle, from his hand^ 
a blazing firebrand. His activity saved him from a scorching, for though 
the flash streamed up within an inch of his face, he darted back and 
shouted huzza ! as loud as the best of the company. It is remembered 
also, that having, at the head of a gang of boys, seized and rolled away 
some valuable casks from a shop-yard, to aid in making the usual Thanks- 
giving bonfire, the casks were arrested on their way, by an ofiicer sent by 
the owner to recover them ; upon which young Arnold was so enraged 
that he stripped off his coat upon the spot, and dared the constable, a stout 
and grave man, to fight. 

At fourteen years of age he was apprenticed as a druggist to Doctors 
Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, and here he exhibited the same rash and 
fearless traits of character. A person who once remained in the shop 
with him during a tremendous thunder-storm, related afterwards, that at 
every peculiarly loud and stunning report, young Arnold would swing his 
hat and shout hurrah ! — adding occasionally some reckless or profane ex- 
clamation. Once during his apprenticeship he ran away, with the design 
of enhsting as a soldier in the British army ; but his friends succeeded in 
finding him, and induced him to return to his employment.* 

Miss Hannah Arnold, the sister of Benedict, was an accomplished lady, 
pleasing in her person, witty and affable. While the family still resided 
in Norwich, and of course when she was quite young, she became an 
object of interest and attention to a young foreigner, a transient resident 
of the place. His regard was reciprocated by the young lady ; but Ben- 
edict disliked the man, and after vainly endeavoring by milder means to 
break off the intimacy, he became outrageous, and vowed vengeance upon 
him if he ever again caught him in the house. After this the young peo- 
ple saw each other only by stealth, the lover timing his visits to the broth- 
er's absence. One evening, Benedict, who had been to New Haven, came 
home unexpectedly, and having entered the house without bustle, ascer- 
tained that the Frenchman was in the parlor with his sister. He instantly 
planted himself in front of the house with a loaded pistol, and commanded 
a servant to assail the door of the room in which they were, as if he 
would break it down. The young man, as Arnold expected, leaped out 
of the window ; the latter fired at him, but it being dark, missed his aim. 

* Some of the biographers of Arnold have asserted that Dr. Lathrop was so well 
satisfied with his services that at the close of his apprenticeship he presented him with 
a bonus of £500. This is a mistake. 

In Sparks' Biography of Arnold, it is said that Dr. Lemuel Hopkins was his fellow 
apprentice; this also is an error. It was Solomon Smith, and not Hopkins, that served 
with Arnold in the Lalhrop drug-store. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



413 



The youth escaped, but the next day left the place, choosing rather to 
relinquish the lady than to run any further risk of his life. Arnold after- 
wards met him at the Bay of Honduras, both having gone thither on a 
trading voyage. A challenge was given by one or the other, and promptly 
accepted. They fought, and the Frenchman was severely wounded. 

After leaving Dr. Lathrop, Arnold engaged in trade, and made several 
voyages to the "West Indies as supercargo of a vessel in which he was 
interested. He went also to London, and returning with an assortment 
of drugs, books, and other goods, established himself in the retail business 
at New Haven. The sign of his shop was found some years since in the 
garret of the house where he lived, and has been lodged in the museum 
of the city. It is painted black, lettered in white, and has both sides 
alike. 



B. ARNOLD, DRUGGIST, 

Book-Seller &c. 
FROM LONDON. 

Sibi Totique.* 



At New Haven he married a Miss Mansfield, a lady of good family, 
young, interesting, and accom{)lished, and as far as is known, his first 
love. He had, however, been a general favorite of the ladies, fond of 
their society, and floating in the gayest circles of the day. His wife died 
before the Revolution broke out, or about that time, leaving three child- 
ren, all sons. 

His sister. Miss Hannah Arnold, never married. She resided with her 
brother, and her attachment to him remained unshaken through all his 
reverses and disgrace. She was doubtless convinced that in breaking off 
her intercourse with the French stranger, he had been influenced by a 
regard to her interest and happiness. After the treason and exile of her 
brother, she had charge of his younger sons, and they found in her a faith- 
ful guide and friend. She died in 1803, at Montague, in Upper Canada. 

Arnold from his youth was a popular leader in martial exercises. He 
had attained the rank of captain in the militia, and when the news came of 
the battle at Lexington, he was one of the flrst in New Haven to arrange 
his business, gird on the sword, and hasten to Boston to offer his services 
to the country. 



* "For himself and for all." The first part, for himsplf, is pointedly appropriate. 
The motto has been rendered by a free translation, Wholly for himself. 



414 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

His character in private life, as sketched bj tradition in the place of his 
birth, — ostentatious, reckless, insincere and self-seeking, impetuous in act, 
and exaggerative in speech, — is vividly exemplified in a familiar note to 
Mrs. General Knox, which by some chance has been preserved. It was 
written before his second marriage, at a time when his proud aspirations 
were gratified by the favor with which he was received in fashionable 
circles. 

"Watertown, 4 March, 1777. 
Dear Madam : I have taken the liberty of Inclosing A Letter for the Heavenly Miss 
Deblois, wliich beg the favor of your delivering, with the Trunk of Gowns &c., which 
Mrs. Colburn promis'd me to Send to your House. I hope she will make no objec- 
tions against receiveing them. I made no doubt you will soon have the pleasure 
seeing the Charming Mrs. Emery, and have it in your power to give me some favour- 
able Intelligence. I shall remain Under the most Anxious Suspcncc untill I have the 
favour of a line from you, who (if I may Judge) will from your own experience, con- 
ceive the fond Anxiety, the Glowing hopes, and Chilling fears, that alternately possess 
the breast of 

Dear Madame, 

Your Obcd't & most 
Mrs. Knox, j Humble Serv't, 



Boston. J B. Arnold. 

It should excite but little surprise that an ambitious, extravagant man, 
with fiery passions and very little balance of moral principle, should 
betray his friends and plunge desperately into treason. In this case it 
might almost have been expected and foreseen. Yet the dark shades in 
Arnold's character have doubtless been exaggerated, and the sum of his 
misdeeds needlessly enlarged. For instance, it has often been said that 
at the burning of New London, he accepted the hospitality of a lady, who, 
trusting to a former friendly acquaintance with hira, ventured to remain 
in the invaded town, and that he ordered the flaming torch to be applied 
to the premises as he rose from the dinner-table. No such incident is 
known to have occurred. Arnold dined that day with some old shipping 
friends of tory proclivities, no lady being present, and though the house 
was afterwards burnt, it was by the spread of the flames from other quar- 
ters, and not by Arnold's order. 

Benedict Arnold died at Brampton, England, June 20, 1801, aged 60. 
His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Edward Shippen, Chief Jus- 
tice of Pennsylvania. She survived her husband, and died in London, 
Aug. 24, 1804, aged 44. 



Capt. Oliver Arnold, of Norwich, the uncle of Benedict, died in 1781. 
He had long been an invalid, and left his family with but little for their 
support. To these relatives Benedict was always liberal, and even after 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 415 

his exile, made them occasional remittances. The oldest son, Freegift, he 
assisted in obtaining a good classical education, and designed him for 
one of the professions ; but the young man joined himself to the Sons 
of Liberty, entered into the naval service, under Paul Jones, and after 
fighting bravely, came home with a ruined constitution, to languish and 
die. The other son, Oliver, had a peculiar talent for making extempora- 
neous rhymes, which seemed to flow from him without premeditation, in 
all the ease of common speech, so that his casual remarks and answers to 
questions would often run in a jingling measure. Many of these famiUar 
rhymes were formerly current in the neighborhood. They were mostly 
of a local and transient character. An example of more general interest, 
which has been often quoted, is the following. 

In a bookseller's shop in New Haven, Oliver Arnold was introduced to 
Joel Barlow, who had just then acquired considerable notoriety by the 
publication of an altered edition of Watts' Psalms and Hymns. Barlow 
asked for a specimen of his talent ; upon which the wandering poet indme- 
diately repeated the following stanza : 

"You've proved yourself a sinful crc'tur'; 
You 've murdered Watts, and spoilt the metre ; 
You 've tried the Word of God to alter, 
And for your pains deserve a halter." 

Oliver was also a sailor and a patriot, and cordially despised the course 
taken by his cousin Benedict, in betraying his country. 

In his habits he was roving and unsettled, absenting himself from home 
in long and vagrant rambles, from one of which he never returned. Ac- 
cording to report, he was found dead by the wayside on a road little fre- 
quented, in the northern part of New York. 

Three daughters of Capt. Oliver Arnold, sisters of Freegift and Oliver 
the rhymester, died aged, but unmarried, the last of the family in Nor- 
wich. The brothers Benedict and Oliver, with their wives, and six child- 
ren of the former and four of the latter, were interred near the center of 
the old burial-lot, but mostly without inscribed grave-stones. 



Gen. Jabez Huntington. \X 



The Committee or Council of Safety, appointed to aid the Governor in 
the recess of the Assembly, entered upon its duties in May, 1775. It 
consisted at first of nine persons, of whom three wei'c Huntingtons from 
Norwich, viz., Hon. Jabez Huntington, an assistant, or member of the 
upper house; Samuel Huntington, Judge of the Superior Court for New 
London county ; and Benjamin Huntington, Esq., a prominent lawyer, 
and then representative from Norwich. At the same time, another Jabea 



416 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Huntington was sheriff of Windham county, and another Benjamin Hunt- 
ington was the town clerk in Norwich. 

Gen. Jabez Huntington was the son of Joshua, who has been heretofore 
mentioned as the first considerable merchant of Norwich, and the only one 
of his sons that left any posterity. He was born Aug. 2, 1719. His 
mother was Hannah, daughter of Jabez Perkins. He graduated at Yale 
College in 1741, and soon afterward entered largely into commercial pur- 
suits, securing a handsome fortune, principally by trade with the "West 
Indies. 

He commenced his patriotic career in 1750, when he was chosen to the 
Colonial Assembly. For several years he presided over the lower house 
as speaker, and afterwards was a member of the council. On the break- 
ing out of the Revolutionary war, he lost nearly half of his property, 
either by capture of his vessels, or from other circumstances connected 
with that calamitous period. 

In the early part of the war, he was an active member of the Council 
of Safety, one of the two Major-Generals of the militia, and after the 
death of General Wooster in May, 1777, he was aj)pointed sole Major- 
General of the State forces. This was an arduous position, demanding 
wisdom, integrity, and a mind fertile in expedients and resources. It 
required his constant attention, and although Gen. Huntington never took 
the field himself, in actual service, yet the exertions he made for his coun- 
try, connected with the exciting events of the day, and the pressure of 
private business, destroyed his health. He was obliged to retire from 
public affairs in 1779, and the last seven years of his life were passed 
under the gloomy shadow of real and imaginary suffering, mental and 
bodily. He died Oct 5, 1786. 

Gen. Huntington's first wife was Elizabeth Backus, sister of the Rev. 
Isaac Backus of Middleborough, Mass. His second wife was Hannah, 
daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Williams of Pomfret. He had five sons and 
two daughters, — the latter happily connected in marriage with Col. John 
Chester of Wethersfield, and Rev. Joseph Strong, colleague and successor 
of Dr. Lord in Norwich. His five sons settled around him, establish- 
ing their homesteads in his immediate vicinity ; though shortly after the 
death of his father, the oldest of them, Gen. Jedidiah, removed to New 
London.* 

* The house built by Jedidiah in 1780, was subsequently the residence of his brother 
Ebenezer. The other houses of the Huntington group are more ancient. One was 
the inherited homestead of the family. The next oldest was erected before 1740. The 
fine elms in its front were set out by Zachariah Huntington, who died in 1761 . Joshua 
Huntington, his son Zachariah, iiis grandson Andrew, and the late Wolcott Hunting, 
ton, comprising four generations, have successively occupied and died in this house. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 417 

Gen. Jedidiah Huntington 

"Was born at Norwich in 1743, and graduated at Cambridge in 1763, 
on which occasion he pronounced the first Enghsh oration delivered in 
that college at commencement. Settling near his father in his native 
place, he engaged with him in mercantile pursuits, but soon became noted 
as one of the Sons of Liberty, and an active captain of the militia. He 
entered with spirit into all the measures of his townsmen in resisting 
oppression, and soon after the skirmish at Lexington, marched to Boston 
with seventy men, where he remained for most of the season on duty. 
He was afterwards appointed Colonel of the 8th Connecticut regiment, 
which was raised and drilled under his orders. This regiment was the 
best equipped of any in the colony, and was distinguished by a British 
uniform, the Governor and Council having appropriated to them a quan- 
tity of English red-coats taken in a prize vessel. John Douglas of Plain- 
field was lieutenant-colonel. 

In the summer of 1776, Col. Huntington's regiment was stationed with 
the main army in the vicinity of New York. In the battle of Long Island, 
Aug. 27th, his men fought with despei'ate bravery. After the action, six 
captains, six lieutenants, twenty-one sergeants, two drummers, and 126 
i-ank and file, were missing.* Those who were taken prisoners endured 
great hardships, and few ever returned to their homes, most of them dying 
in the noted sugar-house and prison-ship at New York, of disease and 
starvation. 

In 1777, Col. Huntington was advanced to the post of Brigadier-Gen- 
eral, which office he held during the war, and at the close of it received 
the appointment of Major-General. 

After the war, he was constantly employed in civil affairs. On the 
decease of Prosper Wetmore, high sheriff" of New London county, in 
1788, he was appointed his successor, and the same year had the office of 
State Treasurer conferred upon him. The manner in which this latter 
appointment was announced in the papei's, gives ti. rather pompous list of 
his honors : 

" Major General Huntington Esq. Vice President of the order of Cincinnati, High 
Sheriff for the county of New London, Judge of Probate for the district of Norwich, 
first Alderman of the city of Norwich, one of the Picpresentatives of the town in the 
State Legislature, and one of the State Electors, is now appointed by the General As- 
sembly Treasurer for the State of Connecticut." 

Most of these offices were soon relinquished for a new appointment 
Upon the organization of the custom-house system, under the Federal 

* Hiaman's Records of Rev. War, p. 89. 
27 



418 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

government, Connecticut was arranged into three districts, New London, 
New Haven, and Fairfield. To the first of these districts, which included 
the commerce of Connecticut river and of the coast from thence eastwardly 
to Rhode Island, Gen. Huntington was appointed collector. He removed 
to New London, and entei-ed on the duties of his office August 11, 1789. 
From that time till his decease, almost thirty years, New London was his 
home. He held the ofiice under four successive Presidents, and died 
Sept. 25, 1818, aged 75. Agreeably to a direction contained in his will, 
his remains, which before the will was opened had been deposited in New 
London, were disinterred, carried to Norwich, and laid in the family 
tomb. 

Gen. Huntington was a man of small stature and sedate temperament, 
but of great energy, steadiness, and dignity ; very neat and precise in his 
personal appearance, and polished, though reserved, in his demeanor. He 
made a profession of religion at the age of twenty-three, and his conduct 
through life was that of a consistent Christian. He was a man of prayer, 
active in the promotion of religious objects, liberal in his charities, and a 
zealous friend of missions. He was one of the first members of the Amer- 
ican Boax'd of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and continued active 
in its concerns till his death. His last will commences with these words, 
"My soul has long been consecrated to my Creator, Redeemer and Com- 
forter." 

General Huntington was twice married. His first wife was Faith, the 
oldest daughter of the first Governor Trumbull. .She died Nov. 24, 1775, 
leaving an only child, the late Jabez Huntington, Esq., President of the 
Norwich Bank. By his second wife, Ann, daughter of Thomas Moore, 
he had seven children. 



Andrew Huntington, the second son of Gen. Jabez, served during the 
'earlier stages of the war as an agent or commissary to provide clothing, 
arms and food for Connecticut regiments. He was afterwards engaged in 
merchandise and the manufacture of paper. 



Joshua, the third son of Gen. Jabez, threw himself into the volunteer 
ranks at the first boom of the Lexington alarm, and served as a soldier at 
the siege of Boston, and during the campaign of 1776 in New York and 
New Jersey. He was subsequently employed in the commissary depart- 
ment. Li the later years of the war he was the agent of Wadsworth & 
Carter of Hartford in supplying the French army at Newport with pro- 
visions. He had also the chai'ge of all prizes sent by the French navy to 
Connecticut, consigned to their agents, Wadsworth & Carter. His mili- 
tary rank at the close of the war was that of colonel. 



4f 




'«,^ 




HISTORY OP NORWICH. 419 

In 1789, lie was appointed county sheriff, and retained the office till his 
death in 1821. 

Col. Hup.tington had but one child, a daughter, who married Hon. 
Frederick Wolcott of Litchfield. 



Gen. Ebenezer Huntington. 



Ebenezer, the fourth son of Gen. Jabez, was a member of Yale College, 
and within two months of completing his course when the battle of Bunker 
Hjll was fought. He and other ardent young patriots of his class asked 
permission of President Daggett to leave the institution and enlist as vol- 
unteers in the army that was gathering at Boston. Being refused, they 
decamped in the night, hastened to AV^ethersfield, where there was a 
recruiting station, enrolled their names, and were soon on duty at the 
heights of Dorchester. 

Mr. Huntington was at first threatened by the College faculty with the 
loss of his degree, but ultimately, as he was under no previous censure, 
he was allowed to graduate with his class in 1775. 

In the army he rose by successive promotions to the rank of colonel, 
and took part in several of the most remarkable contests of the war. 
After his commission as captain of a company in October, 1776, he lived 
with the army, and was ever at his post in camp and field, losing no time 
in long furloughs for rest and recreation. Subsequent to the evacuation 
of New York, his regiment was stationed on the Hudson, at Fort Lee, 
Tarrytown, and Tappan Bay. In 1778 he was sent in command of a 
battalion to Rhode Island to operate against the British, who ihen lield 
possession of Newport. Pie afterwards joined the main army and partici- 
pated in several severe engagements with the enemy. At the siege of 
Yorktown, he served a part of the time as volunteer aid to Gen. Lincoln, 
and in that capacity witnessed the magnificent spectacle of the surrender 
of CornAvallis to the soldiers of liberty.* He remained on duty with the 
army till the troops were disbanded, having served through the whole war 
from April, 1775, to May, 1783. 

General Huntington retired from the army to the peaceful pursuits of 
merchandize. But his experience and tact in military evolutions and dis- 
cipline made it desirable that he should be retained in the home service. 
In 1792 he was appointed Major- General of the militia of the State, an 
office which he held more than thirty years, under six successive Gov- 
cnors. 



* In TrumbuH's historical picture of the surrender of Cornwallis, Gen. Huntington 
is rcprci-entcd in the group of American officers, his portrait having been taken by the 
artist from life. 



420 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Li 1799 he was appointed by President Adams, at the recommendation 
of General Washington, a Brigadier-General in the United States army, 
raised upon the apprehension of a war with France. In 1810, and again 
in 1817, he was elected member of Congress. He died June 17, 1834, in 
the 80th year of his age. 

General Huntington was noted for his fine manly form, and military 
deportment. He was twice married. His first wife was Sarah Isham of 
Colchester ; his second, Maiy Lucretia, daughter of Gen. Samuel Mc- 
Clellan of "Woodstock. 



Zachariah, the fifth son of Gen. Jabez Huntington, was too young to 
take part in the Revolutionary contest, but he attained a high rank in the 
militia, and was endowed by nature with many soldier-like qualities, — a 
commanding person, a voice of great compass, firmness of purpose, and 
habits of great precision and accuracy. 

It is seldom that five such distinguished men as the brothers Hunting- 
ton appear in one family, all living to an age ranging from seventy to 
eighty-six years. 



Joseph Trumbull, Commissary. 

"When the war commenced, Norwich had on her roll of inhabitants no 
one of fairer promise or of more zealous devotion to the cause of liberty 
than Joseph Trumbull. He was the oldest son of Governor Trumbull, 
and born at Lebanon, March 11, 1737, but had been for twelve or fifteen 
years a resident in Norwich, taking an active part in the business, the 
municipal affairs and patriotic proceedings of the town. In 1775, he was 
appointed the first Commissary- General of the American army, an im- 
portant and honorable office, but bringing with it a crushing weight of 
perplexity, labor, and responsibility. He devoted himself with unremit- 
ting ardor to his duties, and was soon worn out by them. In July, 1778, 
he came from Philadelphia with a desponding heart and a broken consti- 
tution. His father and other friends gathered around him, and after a few 
days of rest, he was carefully removed from his home in Norwich to his 
father's house in Lebanon, where he died July 23d, aged 42. 

The hopes of his friends, who expected much from his talents and 
integrity, and whose affections were fondly fixed upon his person, were 
blasted by his untimely death. In the eulogy pronounced at his funeral, 
great praise is awarded to his abilities, his patriotism, and his moral worth, 
and it is added, "In all the winning and agreeable arts of hfe, he had no 
superior." These qualities account for the tender attachment of his 
friends, and the lamentations that were uttered on his death. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH, 421 



Col. John Durkee. 



Could the life of this able and valiant soldier be written in detail, it 
would form a work of uncommon interest. Only the outlines can now be 
recovered, but they are of a nature that indicates a career full of adven- 
ture and a character deeply imbued with patriotic resolution. He was an 
actor in the French and Lidian wars, in the stamp-act excitement, in the 
Wyoming settlement and conflict with the Pennamites, and in many of 
the stirring scenes of the Revolution. 

John Durkee was a native of Windham, but settled early in life at 
Norwich. He served upon the frontier, against the French, in several 
distinct expeditions, and afterwards held the rank of major in the militia. 
He kept an inn, cultivated a farm, and was often engaged in public busi- 
ness. After the repeal of the stamp-act, he became interested in the pur- 
chase made by the Susquehannah Company in Pennsylvania, and was one 
of the forty pioneers sent out by the company in 17G9, to take possession 
of the Wyoming Valley. Robert Durkee was also of the coiu[iany, and 
the first fortress erected by these emigrants was called Fort Durkee. 

Against this scanty band of settlers, the Pennamites or Pennsylvania 
claimants of the valley soon appeared in considerable force, and an obsti- 
nate contest for the possession of the territory ensued. Major Durkee 
was at one time carried to Philadelphia as a prisoner, but Avhen released, 
returned to the scene of conflict. After a long and stormy experience, 
the Connecticut party so far prevailed as to keep possession of their set- 
tlements. 

Wilkesbarre — a name compounded from those of John Wilkes and Coh 
Barre, English politicians who had warmly espoused the American cause 
in the days of the stamp-act — was one of the towns founded by the Con- 
necticut emigrants. As Durkee had been a strenuous partizan on the 
side defended by these English orators, and was a leader of high author- 
ity in the Connecticut party, it is (piite probable that the town is indebted 
for its name to his suggestion and influence.* 

Major Durkee afterwards returned to Norwich, and the trouble with 
England deepening and gradually oversluidovving the land, he relinquished 
the idea of removing to the western wilderness. His brother Robert 
remained at Wyoming,! and was subsequently one of the victims of 
Indian barbarity in the fearful slaugliter of July 3, 1778. His name is 
on the commemorative monument in the Wyoming Valley. 

Major Durkee was promoted to the command of a regiment, and took 
part in the battles of Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, Tren- 

* One of the nephews of Major Durkee had the ^iven name of Barre. 

t They were cousins and brothcrs-iu-law. llobert's wife was sister to Col. John. 



422 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

ton, and Monmouth. He was also witli Gen. Sullivan in the expedition 
against the Six Nations. But his health gradually failed, and in 1780 he 
resigned his command, and was succeeded by Lieut. Col. Thomas Grosve- 
nor of Pomfret. 

He died before the return of peace, May 29, 1782, in his 54th year. 
One of his sons, a youthful volunteer, aged 17 years, died in 1777, of 
wounds received in fighting for his country.* 



Col. Benjamin Tliroop was another gallant officer who served in the 
regular army. He enlisted as first lieutenant in April, 1775; was pro- 
moted by successive steps to the rank of colonel, and continued in the 
service to the end of the war. 

GoL Zahdiel Rogers, of the State militia, was often called out during 
the war. In 1775, his regiment was sent with others from the State to 
the city of New York. It was afterwards several times ordered to the 
western border line of Connecticut. In 1781 he was on duty at Rye and 
Horseneck. 

The brothers Christopher and Benajah Leffingwell, belonging to the 
State militia, were often summoned to~the sea-coast upon an alarm of 
invasion, or to take a turn in manning the forts and batteries. In 1777, 
Benajah Leffingwell, then captain of a company, performed a tour of duty 
in Rhode Island. 

Christopher Leffingwell was an early and active member of the com- 
mittee of correspondence, and eminently useful in rousing the spirit of 
the people, and in devising ways and means by which the common cause 
might be benefited. 

He was a grandson of the second Thomas Leffingwell of Norwich, and 
died Nov. 27, 1810, aged 76 years. His life through its whole length 
was active, useful, and prosperous. It falls to the lot of few men in pri- 
vate life to benefit a community so largely as Norwich was profited by the 
enterprise of Col. Leffingwell. 

Capt. David Nevins enlisted early in the contest for liberty, and lived 
long to witness its happy results. He was first employed as the confiden- 
tial messenger of the Norwich committee of correspondence, one of those 
voluntary patriotic agencies that managed the whole business of the Rev- 
olution in its earlier stages. His personal activity and daring spirit, com- 

* Out of twenty recruits tliat enlisted from Norwich in the company of Capt. Na- 
thaniel Webb of Windham, (Durkee's regiment,) from 1776 to 1778, engaging to serve 
during the war, only /our were over 20 years of age, Webb's Orderly Book. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 423 

billed Avith trustworthiness and ardent participation in the popular cause, 
peculiarly fitted him for the work. But the battle of Lexington carried 
him from all minor employments into the army. He joined the 8th com- 
pany, Gth regiment, which was organized on Norwich Green in May, 1775, 
and was its color-bearer on Dorchester Heights, 

He remained with the army during the siege of Boston, the occupation 
of New York, and the retreat through the Jerseys, returning home in the 
winter of 1777. He did not, however, relinquish the service of his coun- 
try, but was several times again in the field upon various emergencies 
during the war. 

Capt. Nevins was born at Canterbury, Sept. 12, 1747, and died in New 
York, Jan. 21, 1888, aged 90. He had twelve children. The late Henry 
Nevins of Norwich, Russell H. and Eufus L. Nevins, brokers of New 
York, Samuel, James and Richard Nevins of Philadelphia, and Rev. 
William Nevins, installed pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Baltimore in 1820, were his sons. His wife was Mary, oldest daughter 
of Russell Hubbard.* 

Oajyl. Jedidiah Hyde, son of the Separatist minister, born in 1738, left 
his farm and family — a wife and eight children — to enlist among the first 
recruits in the cause of liberty. After the war he removed to Vermont, 
and about the year 1788 established himself at Hyde Park in that State? 
which place derives its name from him. He died in 1825. By two wives 
he had fifteen children, all of whom lived to enter the married state, and 
became heads of families. 

Capt. James Hyde, of Bean Hill, who married Martha Nevins, and 
Cajjl. James Hyde, of the West Farms, whose wife Avas Eunice Backus, 
were both engaged in the Revolutionary contest ; the former on the land, 
and the latter on the sea. Capt. Hyde of tlie army was a man noted for 
his gentleness and philanthropy, yet he enlisted early, fought bravely, and 
served to the end of the war. Great must have been the hatred of Brit- 
ish tyranny, that moved such a spirit to rush into the battle-field. He 
was afterward a Methodist local pi-eacher. 

* The mother of Capt. Nevins was a daughter of Col. Simon Lathrop, who fought 
at Louisburg in 1745. His father, whose name he perpetuated, was supposed to be of 
Scotch origin, but came from Massachusetts to Connecticut, married Mary Lathrop, 
and settled in Canterbury on a fiunn of 300 acres given her by her father. About ten 
years after iiis marriage, he was accidentally drowned in the Quincbaug river, as else- 
where in tliis work related. 

He left five children : Capt. David, above mentioned; Samuel and "Betsey, who died 
tmmarried ; Mary, wlio married Nathan Lord of Lord's Bridge, Lisbon ; and Martha, 
wife of Capt. James Ilyde of Norwich. 



424 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Gapt. Jared Tracy served as a commissary during the siege of Boston, 
and subsequently fought the enemy upon the sea. After the war he went 
into the West India trade, and died at Demarara in 1790. William G. 
Tracy, an early and prominent settler at Whitestown, New York, was his 
son. 

Capt. Simeon Huntington commanded a company in Col. Huntington's 
regiment, and served through the first two campaigns of the war. He 
was a man of bold, adventurous spirit, and had taken a conspicuous part 
in resistance to the stamp act. He died in 1817, aged 77. 

Oapt. Elisha Prior, of Norwich, was in the garrison at Fort Griswold 
when it was stormed by the British, and received a severe wound. He 
died at Sag Harbor, Long Island, in 1817. 

Lieut. Andrew Griswold, of Durkee's regiment, was wounded at the 
battle of Germantown by a ball in the knee, and made a cripple for life. 
He lay for ten months in the hospital at Reading, Penn., and was after- 
ward only able to perform light service in camp and fortress. But he still 
clung to the army, and when the war closed, was at West Point. He died 
at Norwich in 1827, at the age of 72. 

Gapt. Richard Lamb, a native of Leicester, Mass., served during most 
of the war in the Connecticut militia, and was stationed at Danbury, and 
at Fishkill, N. Y. He belonged to a company of artificers, and recruited 
for this company at Norwich in September, 1777. After the conclusion 
of the war, he came to Norwich, married the sister of Lieut. Andrew 
Griswold, and became a permanent inhabitant of the place. He died in 
1810. 

Gapt. Andrew Lathrop commanded a company in 1776, and was on 
duty in New York. 

The brothers Asa and Arimah Waterman took an active part in the war 
as soldiers, agents, and commissaries. 

Captains Asa Kingsbury and Ebenezer Hartshorn, John Ellis and Joshua 
Barker, all of the West Farms, were in the service for longer or shorter 
periods. 

Ebenezer and Simon Perlcins, not brothers, but both of the Newent fam- 
ily, were Revolutionary captains. 

Lieut. Nathaniel Kirtland, of Newent, was killed in battle Oct. 12, 
1777. 



HISTOliY OF NORWICH. 425 

Lieut. Charles Fanning has been already mentioned, but merits a more 
emphatic notice. He was an ensign of the 4th Connecticut battalion in 
1776, was oft^n referred to as one of the town's quota during the war, 
and is on the roll of continental officers that served till the army was dis- 
banded. 

It would be a pleasing task to register the names and memorials of all 
those old soldiers and patriots of Norwich to whom later generations are 
so much indebted ; but after the most diligent gleaning, only a few indi- 
viduals can be named. The town covered a large area. It furnished a 
throng of volunteers at the opening of the war, and its I'egular quota 
afterwards. But we have no muster-roll of the men, and respecting many 
of the officers nothing is recovered beyond a casual reference in the rela- 
tion of incidental matters, or the record of a death.* 

The highest honor belongs to those who served during the whole war. 
The following have an undoubted claim to this distinction, as various pub- 
lic records and returns show that half-pay during life, and bounty hmdsj 
were awarded to them by the government on that account. 

Rev. John P^Uis, chaplain. 
Brig. Gen. Jedidiah Huntington. 
Lieut. Col. Ebenezer Huntington. 
Major Benjamin Throop. 
Lieut. Charles Fanning. 

" James Hyde. 

" Andrew Griswold. 

" Silas Goodell. 

" Jacob Kingsbury .f 

Preston was so near to Norwich, and its military companies were so 
often united with those of the latter, that the names of its prominent offi- 
cers slide easily into our histoi-y. Colonels .John Tyler and Samuel Mott, 
Majors Nathan Peters, Jeremiah Halsey and Edward Mott, Capts. Sam- 
uel Capron and Jacob Meech, were some of the patriots and soldiers from 
that town who bx'easted the first waters of the Revolution, and were often 
afterwards in the field during the war. 

Major Peters enlisted as an ensign in the company of Capt. Edward 
Mott, immediately after the battle of Lexington, and soon rose to the rank 
of captain. In 1777 he was ap[)ointed brigade-major in the Rhode Island 
carai)aigii under General Tyler, and performed several other tours of 
detached service during the war. 

* One of the last lingering soldiers of the old war, in the town plot, was Joshna 
Yeomans, who died Aug. 8, 1835, aged 83. 

t Saflel's Records of Rev. War. 



426 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Happening to be at home on furlough in September, 1781, when the 
British made a descent upon New London, with characteristic ardor he 
rushed to the scene of action, and was tlie fii'st person who entered Groton 
Fort after it had been deserted and a train laid for its destruction by the 
British troops. Hovering in the vicinity, he scarcely waited for them to 
leave the premises before he cautiously entered the fort, and with water 
from the pump extinguished the train which had been laid to cause an 
explosion of the magazine. In five minutes more the whole would have 
been a heap of ruins, under which the dead and dying would, have been 
buried. 

Major Peters died in 1824, aged 79. 

Dr. Philip Turner of Norwich merits an honorable notice, as a surgeon 
of the Revolutionary period. He entered the Pi'ovincial army in 1758, 
when only twenty years of age, as an assistant surgeon, and served upon 
the northern frontier, against the French. He lost none of his patriotic 
ardor in after life, but offered his services to his country in 1775, and was 
with the army at Roxbury and in the arduous campaigns in New York 
and Pennsylvania. As a hospital surgeon, no man in the country stood 
before him. Gen. Jedidiah Huntington said of him : 

" Doctor Turner is blessed with a natural insight into wounds and a dexterity in 
treating them peculiar to himself." 

He retired from the service in 1778, returning to his former miscella- 
neous duties as a druggist, physician and surgeon. His skill as a surgical 
operator was so well understood that he was often summoned to manage 
critical cases, not only from points far back in the country, but from New 
York and Philadelphia. 

In the year 1800 he removed to New York, where he had charge of 
the goverisment hospitals, and there died in 1815. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Inoculation. Division of thk Town. Review of West Farms, Pauti- 
PACG, New Concord, Newent, Hanover, and Long Societies. 

The eight societies into wliich the area of Norwich was divided, in the 
main drew well together, being usually harmonious in opinion on all the 
great questions of morality, liberty, and the public good. The violent 
disputes which at various periods have agitated the town, although some- 
times sectional, have more frequently resulted from clashing interests in 
regard to property, privilege, and partizanship. 

In 1760, a conflict was begun with respect to inocidation for the small 
pox, which came very near being interminable. Individuals had been 
agitating the question for many years, and it was now proposed to the 
town in this form, viz.: Will the town approve of Dr. Elisha Lord's pro- 
ceeding to inoculate for the small pox, under any regulations whatever? 
The vote was in the negative. The subject was resumed again and again, 
with the same result. The popular feeling was excited almost to violence 
whenever the faculty brought up the question. 

In 1773, Dr. Philip Turner and Dr. Jonathan Loomis opened a hos- 
pital for inoculation on an island in the Sound, off Stonington, but the 
inhabitants on the main-land strenuously opposing the system, and the hos- 
tility deepening, they were obliged to relinquish even this island project. 
In August, 1774, Dr. Loomis was arrested and committed to prison on 
the charge of having communicated the infection of small pox by inocula- 
tion to two persons in Stonington. He escaped from his cell after a few 
days confinement, and the Norwich jail-keeper, Sims J^^dgerton, advertised 
him and offei'ed a reward for his apprehension, as would have been done 
in tlie case of a notorious criminal. 

Dr. Elisha Tracy also, though well known in this part of the colony, for 
an honorable and skillful physician, was presented by the grand-jury as 
guilty of a cognizable offence in communicating the small pox to certain 
individuals by inoculation, and held to answer for the same before the 
county court in a bond of £60. Tliese facts sufllce to show the ignorance, 
prejudice and fierce excitement with which the great discovery of Jenner 
was greeted in this district. 



428 \history op Norwich. 

Early in 1787, Drs. Elihu Marvin and Pliilemon Tracy made an effort 
to obtain permission to open a hospital somewhere in the purlieus of the 
town, to be under the control of the selectmen, but this was negatived in 
the ratio of two to one. A second effort was made the same year, with a 
result overwhelming in discouragement, — eight against them to one in 
their favor. 

These energetic physicians, though foiled in their appli«ation to the 
town authorities, persevered in their great object. They secured a beau- 
tiful and retired situation on the bank of the river, in that part of the 
Mohegan reservation known as Massapeag, and another on the Adgate 
farm, both in the town of Montviile, and at length brought their theory 
into successful practice : Jeremiah Rogers and David H. Jewett of Mont- 
viile being their associates. 

The tide had begun to turn, and in 1792 a special town meeting was 
warned to consider the subject, under the expectation tlmt a vote would 
be obtained to permit inoculation within the limits of the town. This 
hope was disappointed ; the opposition was vehement ; a majority were in 
favor of the motion, but the law required two-thirds of the voices present, 
and it was lost, — yeas 56, nays 35. The conflict continued three years 
longer. 

At a town meeting on the 8th of October, 1795, a full vote was given, 
granting liberty to Drs. Tracy and James W. Whiting to open a hospital 
for inoculation the following April, in such place and subject to such reg- 
ulations as the civil authority should deem proper. Accordingly, the next 
year, the house of John Allen, within a mile of tlie court-house, was occu- 
pied as a hospital, by permission of the selectmen, and after this there was 
no controversy on the subject. 



Division of the Town. 

The division of the town took place in 1786. This was accomplished 
in the most amicable manner, by mutual consultation and concurrence. 

A town meeting was convened, and drafts of two memorials to the 
General Assembly were presented : one by Nathaniel Kingsbury, asking 
that the three parishes of West Farms, New Concord and Pautipaug 
might be made a distinct town ; and the other by Joseph Perkins, that 
Newent, Hanover and a -pavt of Long Society might be made a distinct 
town. Against the first only one vote was given, and against the other 
not a single voice was raised. The representatives of the town were 
directed to lay the two memorials before the Assembly, and to state the 
amicable manner in which the affair had been managed. 

The General Committee appointed on the division consisted of four 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 429 

persons, viz., Capt. Ebenezer Baldwin, Deacon Joseph Bushnell," Samuel 
Lcffingwell, and Capt. Andrew Perkins. The repeated consuUations of 
this committee with committees of the various societies, resuUed in the 
formation of four towns instead of three. First Society and Chelsea, to 
constitute the town of Norwich ; Hanover and Newent, another town ; 
West and Eighth Societies, a third ; and New Concord a town by itself. 

East Society was to be annexed to Preston, — the middle waters of the 
Thames, Shetucket and Quinebaug constituting the eastern boundary-line 
of Norwich. 

These proceedings were readily sanctioned by the Legislature, and the 
three nev/ towns incorporated at the May session the same year, under the 
names of Lisbon, Franklin, and Bozrah. 

The old town continued to convene once a year, to settle accounts and 
adjust claims, until 1791, when they had their last meeting. 

In 18G1, the4own of Sprague, comprising a part of Lisbon and Frank- 
lin, was incorporated, and as the western part of both Preston and Gris- 
wold originally belonged to Norwich, there are now five whole towns and 
parts of two others within the limits of the nine-miles-square. 

The division of the town was undoubtedly a wise and salutary measure. 
But an liistorian who has hitherto considered the nine-miles-square as a 
beautiful whole, can not but sigh to see the integrity of his province de- 
stroyed, and may be allowed to linger awhile over those relinquished soci- 
eties which will henceforward have a distinct history of their own. 



Second Society : West Farms, or Franldin. 

The settlements in this society were almost coeval with those in the 
town-plot. Farms were here laid out to the first proprietors, and passed 
into the bands of their sons, who became actual residents. Hence the 
names of Lathrop, Hyde, Abel, Birchard, Tracy, Edgerton, Huntington, 
Waterman, are the earliest in Fi-anklin. 

But with the next generation new names are introduced. Armstrong, 
Hartshorn, Hazen, Johnson, Kingsbury, Ladd, Marshall, Met calf, Rudd, 
and others, appear before 1700, or soon after that period. The enlarged 
population and thriving condition of this part of the township in a short 
time rendered a separate ecclesiastical organization both desirable and 
easy of accomplisliment. A plea for it was presented to the town author- 
ities in 1710, but after conference on the subject it was then deferred. In 
1716 we find this brief record of the division: 

" The West-farmers are freely allowed to become a Society." 

The church was organized Jon. 4, 1718, with eight members, viz., 



430 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Henry Willes, David Hartshorn, Joseph Kingsbury, Sen., Joseph Kings- 
bury, Jr., Nathaniel Rudd, Thomas Hazen, Sanuifil Edgerton, and Samuel 
Ladd. Mr. Willes was ordained pastor of the church, Oct. 8th of the 
same year ; David Hartshorn and Joseph Kingsbury, Sen., were chosen 
deacons. 

Before the ordination took place, a house of worship was erected on 
Meeting-house Hill, 40 feet by 35, and 18 feet between joints. The frame 
of the edifice grew upon the hill, but the interior paneling, with " the pul- 
pit, seats and canopee," were relics of the old church in the town-plot. 

In 1721 this church was favored with a great revival, which raised the 
number of members to sixty-eight, the whole population of the society not 
then exceeding 400 persons. A halcyon period followed; but in 1745 
the society became involved in a controversy, long and obstinate, which 
seems to have originated in a difference of opinion with respect to a new 
house of worship — where it should stand, how it should beiJbuilt, and what 
should be its form and size. 

The meeting-house was built, square and stately, on the site of the old 
one, but the troubled waters were not assuaged. A portion of the con- 
gregation withdrew, and in 1749 Mr. Willes was dismissed, after a min- 
istry of thirty-one years. He never settled elsewhere or changed his 
residence, but still continued to preach occasionally, and died in his old 
home, Sept. 9, 1758, aged 68.* 

His successor in office, Mr. John Ellis, a native of Cambridge, Mass., 
was ordained Sept. 6, 1753, in the face of a strong oppposition, not arising 
from personal dislike of the candidate, but a deep settled aversion to the 
ecclesiastical laws of the colony in regard to building meeting-houses and 
supporting ministers, — a dissent that led to a still further disruption of the 
society. 

On the first organization of Col. Jedidiah Huntington's patriotic regi- 
ment in 1776, Mr. Ellis was appointed its chaplain, and with the consent 
of his people went immediately into the army. In 1779, having decided 
to remain in the field, he asked and obtained a dismission from his charge 
at home, and continued in the service as chaplain till peace was established 
and the army disbanded. His name is on the roll of those who were enti- 
tled to half-pay during life, as having served to the end of the war,t — a 
rare if not a solitary instance of a chaplain who continued on duty in 
camp and field through the seven years of conflict. 

No church records are to be found of the ministry of Mr. Ellis, — an 

* Mr. Willes was a native of Windham, and graduated at Yale in 1715. His wife 
was Martha, daughter of John Kirtland of Saybrook. She survived him, and died in 
1773. They had nine children. 

t Safiel's Kecords of Rev, War, p. 418. 



HISTORY OP NOIiWICH. 431 

interval occurring of thirty-three years in which there is neither registry of 
admissions, baptisms, marriages, or death. 

In 1785, Mr. Ellis was installed over a chui-ch at Rehoboth, but at the 
end of ten years resigned his charge, and returned to Franklin, where he 
died Oct. 19, 1805, in the 79th year of his age.* 

Rev. Samuel Nott, tlie third minister of West Farms, was ordained 
March 13, 1782. The church then consisted of 72 members: 35 males 
and 37 females. His pastorate was of seventy years duration, and he 
performed its duties almost to the end. In him a feeble and sickly youth 
was gradually hardened into executive health and drawn out into a com- 
fortable if not vigorous old age. This v^as in great part due to the life- 
sustaining energy of an ever-active but equable flow of the mental facul- 
ties, and a natural cheeriness of disposition. 

Dr. Nott was born at Saybrook, Jan. 23, 1754, and died at Franklin, 
May 26, 1852, wanting four months of being 98. In a sermon preached 
on the 60th anniversary of his ordination, he stated that he had not dur- 
ing his pastorate been detained from his duties by indisposition but eleven 
Sabbaths, and five of these were in consequence of a slight injury upon 
his right hand. 

"My hand and life (he says) were for some time in great danger. The Kev. Wil- 
liam Woodbridge, a classmate and very particular friend, preached for me four Sab- 
baths, and on the fifth lay dead in my house, being suddenly called to give an account 
of his stewardship." 

The Rev. Mr. McEwen, in his funeral sermon on the death of Dr. 
Nott, said of him : 

"Until his 94th year his venerable form was always seen among his assembled 
brethren, and in their discussions and services unto that age he stood manfully in his 
lot." 

The ministry of the first three pastors of Franklin extended over a 
period of 134 years, including two vacant intervals of three years each. . 

Rev. Samuel Nott of Franklin, and Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D. D., of 
Union College, Schenectady, were brothers, and sons of Stephen Nott of 
Saybrook, who was a descendant of John Nott, one of the first settlers of 
Wethersfield. Their mother was Deborah Selden of Lyme. 

Rev. George J. Harrison was ordained colleague with Dr. Nott, March 
13, 1849, and on Dr. Nott's death, became sole pastor. He was dismissed 
at his own request, in October, 1851. His successor, after a short inter- 
val, was Rev. Jared R. Avery. 

The present pastor is Rev. Franklin C. Jones, a son of Rev. E. C. Jones 
of Southbury, Ct. He was ordained Feb. 5, 1863. 

* " lie has no memorial to tell future generations where his body lies." Nott's Half 
Century Sermon. 



432 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The meeting-house erected in 1745 stood upon the same elevated site 
occupied by its predecessor, commanding an extensive prospect of wood- 
lands and cultivated farms. For a hundred years it crowned and beauti- 
fied the hill, its altar-fires never going out until a third house of worship 
was prepared to continue the sacred services at the same place. 

A choice old picture is treasured in the memory of those who can recall 
to mind this ancient church and its surroundings as it appeared on the 
Sabbath in the days of the venerable Dr. Nott. Horses and vehicles of 
various sorts are assembled on the hill-top. Inside of the church all is 
sombre, plain and antique. The house is square, and the pews are square. 
There is an entrance in front and at either end, with aisles leading from 
each and crossing at the center. The pulpit is at the side. The pew- 
frames and gallery fronts resemble lace bobbins. The sound-board, bearing 
in large figures the date of 1745, the pulpit and pulpit-window are carved 
and painted in colors. The pulpit cushions are of gray velvet, with 
heavy black tassels, and when the wind comes in through the broken 
casements, they wave like a hearse pall. One must have seen it filled 
with its varied congregation, and surmounted with the thin and pallid face 
of its venerable pastor, and have heard his tremulous voice uttering the 
customary strains of exhortation and warning, in order to obtain the most 
striking impression of a country congregation of the genuine old Puritan 
stamp. 

But ninety years is an extended date for the old wooden structures of 
America, and in 1836 this primitive church gave place to a third sacred 
edifice built on the same site. This also was abandoned and removed in 
1863, — a fourth church, in the modern style of architecture, having been 
completed near by, in a less bleak position, somewhat lower upon the hill. 
It is a neat and graceful building, calculated for an audience of about 300 
people, and furnished with the first church-bell ever sounded on that 
ancient hill. A parsonage was the same year erected on the site that had 
been occupied by three successive sanctuaries of the soqiety. 



Pautipaug, or Eighth Society. 

The small company that broke away from the West Farms church 
between 1745 and 1750, formed a new organization, and in 1758 settled 
the Rev. Mr. Ives as their pastor. The society was not incorporated and 
legally accepted as a society until after the formation of the Seventh or 
Hanover Society, and therefore ranked as the Eighth, although a church 
upon the platform recognized by the government was established here 
earlier than at Hanover. These ecclesiastical societies were the districts, 
or legal sub'.livisions of towns in Connecticut, in its earlier days, when the 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 433 

people were all of one sect. The existence of other denominations ren- 
ders them obsolete. 

Mr. Ives removed to Munson, Mass. in 1770, and the history of the 
church sinks into oblivion. It does not appear that they had any other 
pastor, nor do we find any account of what became of the church or con- 
gregation. 

The Separatists organized a church in this society in 1747, and Thomas 
Denison was ordained as its pastor. It became extinct in about twelve 
years. 

In the early part of the present century, a free church was erected here 
by the voluntary contributions of individuals. Not only were the seats 
free, but the pulpit was open for all denominations of Christians to occupy. 
It was, however, generally improved by the Methodists. It is now dis- 
used, and the bell has been transferred to the Congregational church. 

When the two societies of West Farms and Pautipaug were united to 
form a town, the proposition to give it the name of Franklin is believed 
to have originated with Jacob Kingsbury, Esq. This gentleman was 
Inspector-General in the army of the United States, and served his coun- 
try faithfully both in the army and navy for a period of forty years. He 
was a descendant of Deacon Joseph Kingsbury, one of the first pillars of 
the West Farms church. At the commencement of the Revolution, he 
repaired to Roxbury, and entered the army as a volunteer, being then 
only eighteen years of age. He continued in the service until the close 
of the second war with the British, in 1815. He was a member of the 
old society of the Cincinnati. His death took place at Franklin, in 1837; 
he was then eighty-one years of age. One of his descendants, Lieut. 
Charles E. Kingsbury, a youth of eighteen, died at Fort Mellon, in East 
Florida, eleven days before him. So near together fall the green tree 
and the dry. 

Franklin was for a long period nearly stationary in its population, — or 
rathei", gradually decreasing from the effects of emigration. It was de- 
voted to fjxrming, and had no considerable village, and no manufacturing 
establishment except a woollen factory on Beaver Brook. The extent of 
the town was about five miles by four. 

POPULATION. 

1810— llGl. 1840—1000. 1860—2358. 

1830—1194. 1850— 895. 

Between 1856 and 1860, the village of Baltic sprung up like magic in 

the eastern part of Franklin, and has expanded into the flourishing town 

of Sprague. This new organization took off the north-eastern part of 

Franklin, assumed one-half of the town debt, and the charge of all the 

28 



434 HISTORY OF NOEWICH. 

poor, save one. A census was taken of the town after the separation, 
which gave the following result : 7G3 inhabitants, 178 electors, and 157 
families. 



Neio Concord, or Fourth Society. 

The fourth ecclesiastical society was recognized by the Legislature in 
1733. Permission had been given to the planters to form a parish by 
themselves in 1715, but being unable to support a minister, they were not 
regularly organized until eighteen years afterward, when they took the 
name of New- Concord, and were released from all obligation to support 
the ministry of the First Society, on condition of maintaining a gospel 
minister at least six months in the year. 

The northern part of the present town, — that part which lies in the 
bend of the Yantic, — was included in the West Farms parish, and the 
bounds betweeen the two societies were to be : the river, the hrooh that runs 
out of it, the Cranberry Pond, the Cranberry Pond brook, the great swamp^ 
the darh swamp, and the miry swamp. It might be difficult at the present 
day to run the line from these data. 

The church was organized and Rev. Benjamin Throop ordained the 
first pastor, Jan. 3, 1738-9. Mr. Throop was a native of Lebanon, and 
a graduate of Yale. He died Sept. 16, 1785, after an efficient pastorate 
of forty-six years, aged seventy-four. He left behind him the reputation 
of a scholar and a gentleman ; seasoning all his speech with a divine 
relish, yet genial, social, always diffusing good-humor, always thirsting for 
information, and ever ready to impart knowledge from his ample stores to 
others. Such gems seem to diffuse a brighter lustre when set in sober 
and secluded scenes. 

When Mr. Throop died, New-Concord was a parish in Norwich, but 
before another year had revolved it was an incorporated town by the 
name of Bozrah. 

It is not easy to determine why this quiet rural township should have 
been made the namesake of the haughty, woe-denounced and desolate city 
of Edom, — a name in singular contrast with its ancient peaceful and 
friendly cognomen of New-Concord. The Syrian Bozrah lay in the open 
plain, but this was eminently a woodland district amid the hills. The 
current story that the name originated in a jocose but irreverent applica- 
tion of Isaiah 63 : 1, to the agent of the society, who, when he appeared 
in the town meeting to plead for the separation, was conspicuous for his 
parti-colored garments, can not be seriously admitted. A pleasantry 
might have been thus perpetuated, but not a profanity. 

It is possible that the name was suggested by Mr. Throop on account 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 435 

of the original meaning of the word, which, according to Hebrician stu- 
dents, signifies a sheep-fold. Tliis, with some hititude of application, 
might be given to a farming town, or it might refer spiritually to an eccle- 
siastical parish. 

In one point of view, the designation was happily chosen. While most 
of our names, in defiance of taste and utility, have been repeated from 
county to county, and from state to state, causing embarrassment and con- 
fusion, and leading to innumerable mistakes, our pleasant Bozrah as yet 
stands alone in the Gazetteers of the new world. There is scarcely an- 
other only one to be found in the country, unless it be of Indian origin. 

The committee to manage the separation of the town in 1786 consisted 
of Benjamin Throop, Nehemiah Waterman, Esq., Asa Woodworth, and 
Jabez Hough. Its first representative was Capt. Isaac Huntington. 

Bozrah is four and a half miles long, and about four in breadth. Like 
other parts of the nine-miles-square, it consists of a succession of hills 
and valleys, some of them rocky and barren, others fair and fertile. "The 
Woody Vales of Bozrah ! " has been a familiar phrase in the vicinity, 
from its having been the chorus of a poem written by one of Bozrah's 
sentimental daughters. 

The second minister of the church was Rev. Jonathan Murdock, a 
native of Westbrook, and previously settled at Rye, N. Y. He was 
installed at Bozrah, Oct. 12, 1786, and died Jan. 16, 1813, aged sixty- 
eight. 

John Bates Murdock, a son of this excellent clergyman, graduated at 
Yale College in 1808, but afterward entered the army, and served during 
the war of 1812-15 ; at the close of Avhich he had the rank of brevet 
major. He died soon after the conclusion of peace, unmarried. 

Rev. Dr. James Murdock of New Haven, Professor of Ecclesiastical 
History, and the translator of the Syriac Testament into English, was a 
nephew of the Bozrah minister. 

The third minister of Bozrah, Rev. David Austin, was installed May 
9, 1815. The old meeting-house where Tliroop and Murdock preached 
was then standing, but that same year a new house of worship was com- 
pleted.* Mr. Austin's dedication sermon was published. 

Rev. David Austin was a native of New Haven, born in 1760, and 
fitted by an accomplished education and foreign travel to become an orna- 
ment to society, as well as by ardent piety and a lively and florid elo- 
quence to be useful in the ministry. He married Lydia, daughter of Dr. 
Joshua Lathrop of Norwich, and settled as pastor of the church in Eliza- 

* The old church stood where is now the house of Rev. N. S. Hunt. The second 
was built about eight rods distant. Tiie present church, which is the third sacred edi- 
fice of the parish, owes its erection chiefly to the liberal aid afforded by tlie late Col 
Asa Fitch and his family. 



436 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

betlitown in 1788. The kindness of his heart and the suavity of Ms- 
manner endeared him to all who knew him, while his zeal in the perform- 
ai.<!e of his duties, and his popular pulpit talents, made him successful ini 
his office, and extensively known as a preacher. It is to him that Gov.. 
Xiivingston alludes in the following lines of his poem on Philosophic Sol-- 
itude : 

• " Dear A***** too slioiild grace my rural seat, 

Torever welcome to the green retreat ; 
Heaven for the cause of righteousness designed 
His florid genius and capacious mind. 
Oft have I seen him 'mid the adoring throng, 
Celestial traths devolving from his tongue ; 
Oft o'er the listening audience seen him stand, 
Divinely speak, and graceful wave his hand." 

Mr, Austin was naturally eccentric, and had always something erratic 
and extravagant in his manner of thinking, speaking, and acting. Unhap- 
pily his mind was led to investigate, too deeply for its strength, the prophe- 
cies ; his ardent imagination became inflamed, his benevolent heart dilated 
to overflowing, and his mental powers became partially deranged. He now 
appeared as a champion of the Second Advent doctrine, and held that the 
coming of Christ to commence his personal reign on earth would be on 
the fourth Sabbath of May, 1796. On the morning of that day he was 
in a state of great agitation, and one or tAvo reports of distant thunder 
excited him almost to frenzy. But the day passed over as usual ; yet the 
disappointment did not cure the delusion of Mr. Austin's mind. He took 
the vow of a Nazarite, and went round the country announcing the near 
approach of Christ's coming, and calling upon the Jews to assemble and 
make preparations to return to their own land. 

In 1797, he was removed by the Presbytery from his pastoral relation 
to the church at Elizabethtown. He then went to New Haven, where he 
erected several large houses and a wharf, for the use of the Jews, whom 
he invited to assemble there, and embark for the Holy Land. Having at 
last, in this and other plans, expended an ample fortune, he was for a 
while imprisoned for debt, and after being released from confinement, 
gradually became calm and sane upon all points except the prophecies. 
He had no children, and his wife had long before taken refuge in her 
father's house in Norwich. He also returned to this home, after all liis 
wanderings, like the dove to the ark, and the balance of his mind being 
in a great measure restored, he began again to preach with acceptance in 
various churches in Connecticut. After his installation in Bozrah, he 
performed all the duties of a pastor, faithfully proclaiming the gospel of 
salvation for a period of fifteen years. He died in Norwich, Feb. 5, 
1831. 




Mf 



^zh 







HISTORY OP NORWICH. 437 

For elegance of manners, for brilliancy of conversation, for fervor of 
worship, for a large heart and a liberal hand, few men could surpass Mr. 
Austin. The darkness that obscured his intellect on many points, and 
which was never wholly removed, appeared not to impair in the least 
those prominent traits, that lay deep and shone through, to ihustrate his 
character, and to win for him the love and admiration of all who came 
within his sphere. 

Since the decease of Mr. Austin, the following persons have served, 
each for several years, as pastor of the church : 

Eev. John W. Salter. 
Rev. William M. Birchard. 
Rev. N. S. Hunt. 

Mr. Birchard is the only one of these that has been regularly settled. 
He was installed and continued in office from April, 1842, to October, 
1848. 

Since April 1, 1858, Mr. Hunt has been retained as the acting pastor 
of the society. He had previously been settled at Abington and at Pres- 
ton, officiating about ten years at each place. 

Two other churches within the limits of Bozrah have been organized 
in part by members from this older church of New-Concord: viz., at 
Bozrahville, April 10, 1828; and at Fitchville, Dec. 1, 1854.* The 
Baptists and Methodists have each also a house for worship and a relig- 
ious organization in Bozrah, making five worshiping assemblies in the 
town. 

Population of Bozrah : 

In 1840—1067. 
1850— 867. 
1860—1217. 

We can not close this sketch of Bozrah without adverting to the im- 
provements that have been effected in a portion of the town since 1832, 
by wealth, energy and perseverance under the control of Asa Fitch, Esq. 
The taste and efficiency that have converted an ancient seat of iron-works 
and a rugged farming district into the village of Fitchville with its large 
agricuhural area, its mansion house beautifully embowered and skirted 
with landscape beauty, its symmetrical well-built church, its cotton-mill, 
its lines of heavy stone wall, and its two miles of graded road, prepared 
for a railway, command our unqualified admiration. 

* The society at Bozrahville, thqugh destitute of a settled pastor, has kept steadily 
together and manifested a commendable zeal and perseverance in sustaining the Sab- 
bath service. For a few years past they have been chiefly dependent ou the ministra- 
tions of Rev. George Crycr, of the Metliodist denomination. 



438 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Fitchville occupies the site of the old Huntington Iron-works, estab- 
lished by Nehemiah Huntington and Capt. Joshua Abel in 1750. In its 
native condition this was a wild and gloomy district, with deep valleys and 
precipitous ledges ; the pasture-land harsh and stony, and the woodlands 
rugged and forbidding. 

The mill, the church, the village, the mansion house with its superb 
floral adornments and umbrageous walks, are now the central treasures 
of a domain extending two or three miles on all sides. The old farms of 
Fitch, Huntington, Abel, Gillson, Waterman, Chapman, Baldwin, and 
others, are consolidated under one proprietor, who devotes his time, his 
energetic business habits and abundant resources to the improvement of 
his possessions ; being himself the originator of his plans, the director, 
overseer and paymaster of the whole. 

No part of the nine-miles-square has a stronger claim to notice in our 
history, than Fitchville. It is not only a striking example of what may 
be done by persevei'ing enterprise in softening the sterile and homely fea- 
tures of nature into productiveness and beauty, but it furnishes a pleasing 
link to connect our reminiscences with the founders of the town. 

The present proprietor, from whom the village derives its name, is a 
descendant through both parents from the Rev. Mr. Fitch, the first minis- 
ter of Norwich, of whose pai'ish this was a part. The Abells and Hunt- 
ingtons, the first owners of the land, were members of the church and con- 
gregation of Norwich town-plot.* 

The house of worship built by Mr. Fitch was dedicated Aug. 4, 1852. 
A church was organized Dec. 1, 1854, while the Rev. William Aitcheson 
was the officiating minister. It has had no settled pastor, but temporary 
ministers have been provided, by the liberality of Mr. Fitch, with an 
exception during the late war, when, the operations of the mill having 
ceased, the services were intermitted, and the church closed for three or 
four years. 

Beneath the church edifice is the Fitch Cemetery, to which place the 
remains of Col. Asa Fitch and of various members of his family have 
been removed. 

* Col. Asa Fitch, the proprietor of the old iron-works at this place, was a man of 
marked character, full of energy and decision. In the Revolutionary war, whenever 
an alarm was sounded that the enemy were threatening the Connecticut coast, he was 
almost invariably the first of his company to shoulder the musket and start for the 
scene of action. 

He died August 19, 1844, aged 89 years and six months. He was a son of Stephen 
Fitch, of the Lebanon line of descent from the Rev. James. His wife Susanna was a 
daughter of Benajalj Fitch, of East Norwich, or Long Society. * 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 439 

Newent, or Third Society. 

The ecclesiastical society in this place was organized in 1723, the town 
having previously appropriated sixty acres of land for the use of the first 
minister that should settle there. The affairs of the society were entirely 
under the control of the Perkins family, as appears from the following 
entry : 

Jan. 17, 1720. In town meeting ordered, that if the Perkinses at their return from 
Boston, do not bring with them a minister to preach in the crotch of the river, or sat- 
isfy the selectmen they shall have one speedily, the rate-makers shall put them into the 
minister's rates. 

The church was constituted and Rev. Daniel Kirtland ordained its min- 
ister, Dec. 10, 1723. The original members were Daniel Kirtland, the 
pastor, Samuel Lathrop and Joseph Perkins, who were chosen deacons, 
John Bishop, Jeremiah Tracy, (son of Thomas Tracy of Preston,) Isaac 
Lawrence, and Isaac Lawrence, Jr. — the church resting upon seven pil- 
lars, a favorite number in that day.* 

The church agreed to profess discipline according to the Cambridge 
Platform. They professed to believe "that all organized church acts pro- 
ceeded after the manner of a mixed administration, and could not be con- 
summated without the consent of both elders and brotherhood." In this 
they agreed with the two older societies of Norwich. 

Before the formation of this church, the inhabitants between the rivers 
had been accustomed to attend meeting at the town-plot, the distance for 
some of them being about eight miles. The older people went on horse- 
back, the women on pillions behind the men, but the young people often 
traveled the whole distance, going and returning, on foot.f 

Church-going in former days was a serious and earnest duty. None 
stayed away from the house of worship, that could by extremest effort 
get there. On horseback or on foot, over wearisome roads, or through 
lonely by-paths that shortened the distance, they came with their house- 
holds to obtain a portion of the truth. "Many a time," says Rev. Levi 
Nelson, " while passing over the society, has my attention been arrested 
to notice the paths, now given up, where they used to make their rugged 
way to the house of God, almost as surely as the holy Sabbath returned." 

* Though frequent instances occur in our New England annals, of cliurches formed 
with this precise number, showing that there was a kindly leaning towards it, yet it 
was not invariable, nor held to be of great moment. Tiie smallest number embodied 
into church estate in this vicinity, was undoubtedly the church of North Groton, now 
Ledyard, which was organized Dec. 12, 1810, with one main pillar, viz., Capt. Robert 
Allyn, and four females. Capt. Allyn was then upward of 80 years of age. 

See Ilalf-Century Sermon of Rev. Timothy Tuttle. 

X Half Century Sermon of Rev. Levi Nelson, 



440 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

And when there, how intently and with what eagerness to profit they 
listened. "To this day," says the same reverend author, "I love to think 
of their appearance in the house of God, of the seats they occupied, and 
of their significant motions to express their approbation of the truth." 

The new society took the name of Newent, undoubtedly at the sugges- 
tion of the brothers Perkins, and according to tradition, in remembrance 
of a place of that name in Gloucestershire, England, from whence the 
family came. 

The meeting-house was probably built immediately after the church was 
gathered. 

1723. Sixty acres of land granted by the town to the Society in the crotch of the 
rivers for the first minister that shall settle there. 

The same to be given to the Society over the Shetucket for their first minister. 

Jan. 4, 1725-6. The proprietors grant that spot of land the Newent meeting house 
now stands upon and ye common land adjoining to it to that Society for their use so 
long as they shall have occasion for it. 

Joseph Tract, Moderator. 

Lieut. Jabez Hyde. Thomas Adgate. 

Deacon Christopher Huntington. Joseph Backus. 

Capt. Benajah Bushnell. Richard Hyde. 

The site of this building was about half a mile south of the present 
sacred edifice, and continued to be used until about 1770.* 

The church has still in good preservation a large folio volume of the 
works of Baxter, sent as a present in former years from England. It 
was placed on Sundays upon the desk below the pulpit, and those who 
stayed between the services gathered around upon the nearest seats, and 
one of them read aloud for the edification of the others.f 

The inhabitants of Newent, in a petition to the General Court, October 
session, 1727, state that they had been afflicted with a distressing sickness 
for two successive years, especially in summer. In 1726, every family 
but one was smitten, and about twenty persons died in three months. In 
the summer of 1727, every family with no exception felt the scourge, and 
one-sixth of the male heads of families died. The fai-mers could not 
secure their crops, and though kindly assisted by people from other par- 
ishes, they lost some of their grain and much of their hay. 

Rev. Daniel Kirkland (or Kirtland) was a native of Saybrook, born in 
1701, and graduated at Yale College in 1720. His ministry in Newent 
was of nearly thirty years duration. He was a man of scholastic habits 
and high aspirations, but of sensitive organization. His faihng health led 

* " It stood where Mr. Daniel Hatch's house now is." Nelson's Half-Century Ser- 
mon, 1854. 
t Ibid. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 441 

to his dismission from the pastorate in 1752, Recovering partially, he 
was installed at Groton in 1755, but after two years of service he again 
broke down, and returning to his old home in Norwich, there remained till 
his death, which occurred in May, 1773. 

Mr. Kirkland had ten or twelve children. His second son, John, born 
Nov. 15, 1735, was one of the first settlers of Norwich, Mass. Another 
son, Samuel, born Dec. 1, 1741, is well known as the Oneida Missionary, 
one of the most energetic, faithful, and self-denying men born within the 
limits of the old town of Norwich. 

Mr. Peter Powers was ordained the second minister of Newent, Dec. 
2, 1756. He remained in charge seven or eight yeai's, and then was dis- 
missed at his own request, on account of the insufficiency of his salary. 
Mr. Powers was a man of marked character, earnest and energetic in 
action. From Newent he went immediately into the settlements then 
making in the Coos or Cohos country on Connecticut river, and oi'ganized 
a church in Haverhill, consisting of members from both sides of the river, 
that is, from Haverhill, N. H., and Newbury, Vt., over which he was 
installed Feb. 27, 1765, preaching his own installation sermon. Here he 
was accustomed to meet his appointments and make his parochial visits in 
a canoe, rowing himself up and down the stream, — an easier mode of 
traveling, probably, than that of mounting a horse and stumbling over 
half-cleared pathways, as in his former parish at Newent. 

Mr. Powers died at Deer Island, Maine, in 1799.* 

The church at Newent, being left without a pastor, gradually declined, 
and for several years gave but feeble signs of life. Something like a 
reorganization took place in 1770 ; several of the Separatists returned to 
their old places, and Mr. .Joel Benedict, a man of line classical attain- 
ments, was ordained pastor of the church Feb. 21, 1771. He continued 
with them eleven years, when an infirm state of health, and the old diffi- 
culty, want of adequate support, dissolved the connection, and he was dis- 
missed April 30, 1782. 

Dr. Benedict afterwards settled in Plainfield, and acquired a distin- 
guished reputation as a Hebrew scholar. Hebrew, he said, was the lan^ 
guage of angels. He died at Plainfield in 1816. 

In .June, 1790, Mr. David Hale of Coventry was ordained. He was 
the brother of the accomplished and chivalrous Capt. Nathan Hale, who 
was executed as a spy on Long Island, by order of Sir William Howe. 
Mr. Hale was a man of very gentle and winning manners, of exalted 
piety, and a fine scholar. He carried his idea of disinterested benevo- 
lence to such an extent, that if acted upon, it would overturn all social 
institutions. He thought it to be a man's duty to love his neighbor, not 

* For many interesting particulars respecting Mr. Peter Powers, see History of Coos 
County, by Kev. Grant Powers. 



442 HISTORY OP NOEWICH. 

only as himself, with the same kind of love, but also to the same degree^ 
so that he should not prefer, even in thought, that a contingent calamity, 
such as the burning of a house, or the loss of a child, should fall on his 
neighbor rather than on himself. Mr. Hale supplied the deficiencies of 
his salary by keeping a boarding-school. As an instructor, he was popu- 
lar ; his house was filled with pupils from all parts of the county, but ill- 
health and a constitutional depression of spirits obliged him to resign this 
employment, and eventually his pastoral office. His mind and nerves 
were of that delicate and sensitive temperament, which can not long 
endure the rude shock of earthly scenes. He was dismissed in April, 
1803, returned to Coventry, and there died in 1822. David Hale, so 
well known as proprietor and editor of the Journal of Commerce, was his 
son. 

These four ministers of Newent were all men of more than common 
attainments, and each was distinguished by peculiar and prominent traits 
of character. Neither of them died as minister of the parish. The four 
pastorates covered respectively twenty-nine, eight, eleven and thirteen 
years, with intervals between of four, seven and eight years. 

Rev. Levi Nelson, a native of Milford, Mass., the fifth pastor, ordained 
Dec. 5, 1804, was a man of great simplicity of character and purity of 
life. It was often said of him that he never had an enemy. 

He preached his half-century sermon in 1854. Only one* of the thirty- 
eight members who received him as their pastor in 1804, was then living; 
but of the oi-dination choir, four were pi-esent and united in singing again 
the same hymns that formed a part of the original service. The old Kirt- 
land church was then extant, seated in decaying dignity upon gently rising 
ground, with its barrack-like row of sheds spread out at the side like 
wings. The outside of the edifice had been covered and re-covered, as 
the wear and tear of years demanded, but no tool or painter's brush, under 
pretence of improvement or repair, had invaded the interior since it was 
first completed. The impression produced on the mind upon entering, 
was that of homely, stern solemnity. The pulpit was high and contracted, 
with a sounding-board frowning over it, and a seat for the deacons in front 
of it, below. The pews were square, with high partitions ; the galleries 
spacious, with certain seats more elevated than others for the tything-men 
or supervisors of behavior. This venerable structure is believed to be the 
last specimen of the old New England sanctuary that lingered in the nine- 
miles-square. It was demolished when about eighty-eight years of age, 
and its place supplied by a new church, dedicated Sept. 15, 1858. 

In 1843, the Newent church comprised 150 members, spread over a 
wide range in the southern part of Lisbon, but two Methodist churches 

* Mrs. L. Hommedieu, of Norwich. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 443 

have since been formed in that vicinity, and Congregational influence has 
decHned. 

Rev. David Breed, Mr. Nelson's successor, was dismissed in 1862, and 
they have since had no settled pastor. 



Note on the Ferhins Family. 

Jacob Perkins, bom in England in 1624, came to this country at seven years of age, 
with his father John. lie died at Ipswich, Jan. 29, 1700. Joseph and Jabez Perkins, 
so closely connected with the early history of Norwich, were his sons. They came to 
the place young and unmarried, and seated themselves for life in a part of the town 
where the woods were yet unthinned and the soil unmellowed by cultivation. 

Joseph Perkins married May 22, 1700, Martha, daughter of Joseph Morgan of Pres- 
ton, lie died Sept. 6, 1726. Eleven out of the thirteen children recorded to him were 
then living. The inventory of his estate was £2,787, and included three farms, viz., 
the homestead of 310 acres, and two others comprising nearly 1000 acres. This is but 
a specimen of the large landed estates of early proprietors. Dr. Perkins left a special 
legacy to -his son Joseph, of "money to carry him through college." This Joseph 
Perkins, 2d, acquired and maintained through life the respect and confidence of the 
community, as a skillful surgeon and physician, and an active, judicious citizen. He 
was also a faithful deacon of the church, as his father had been before him. 

Dr. Joseph Perkins was the first of three generations of M. D.'s of the same name, 
in direct descent, each an oldest son, and all practicing in their native township. He 
was the fiither also of Dr. Elisha Perkins of Plaiufield, and of Andrew Perkins, Esq., 
of Norwich Landing. 

The third Dr. Joseph Perkins, whose wife was Joanna Burnham, was the father of 
Major Joseph Perkins of Norwich, of Benjamin Perkins of Camden, S. C, and of the 
twin brothers, Elias and Elijah, the former of New London, and the latter a physician 
in Philadelphia. 

Dr. Elisha Perkins of Plainficld was the celebrated inventor of the metallic Tractors. 
This was a method of curing diseases by rubbing the patient in a certain manner with 
small pointed pieces of metal, steel, or brass, which were thought to extract the pain 
by a kind of magnetism. 

Dr. Perkins was a man of great purity of character, skillful and indefatigable in his 
profession, with great kindness of heart, and that winning cordiality of manner which 
secures the ardent attachment of friends. Such was the vigor of his constitution and 
his physical activity that he regarded a ride on horseback of sixty miles a day as only 
pleasurable exercise that gave him no sensible fatigue. 

Hon. Calvin Goddard said of Dr. Perkins, " I believe there are few men in the world 
more public-spirited, more hospitable, and more free from all guile, than Dr. Perkins. 
Whether the tractors are valuable or not, I have never doubted that the doctor fully 
believed in their efficacy." 

Dr. Perkins conceived that powerful antiseptics, used in the first stages of the yellow 
fever, would conquer the disease. Impelled by a profound conviction of duty, he re- 
solved to go to New York while the disorder was prevailing there, and test the value of 
the theory. Ho went, but unfortunately took the infection, and died Sept. 6, 1799. 

Dr. Perkins was the father of the late Henry B. Perkins of Salem, Ct., and of Kev. 
George Perkins, who died at Norwich in 18.52. 

Dr. Elisha H. Perkins of Baltimore is his grandson. 



444 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

Jabez Perkins, the other Perkins founder of Newent, married June 30, 1698, Han- 
nah, daughter of Samuel Lathrop, who died in 1721, and he was united the next year 
to Charity Leonard of Middlebury. He had a son Jabez by each wife. His will recog- 
nizes ten children and the heirs of his oldest son Jabez deceased. He was the ancestor 
of Capt. Erastus Perkins of Norwich, of Col. Simeon Perkins of Liverpool, Nova 
Scotia, (the grandfather of J. Newton Perkins of Norwich,) and of the brothers Francis 
A. and George L. Perkins of Norwich. 

The above-named Simeon Perkins removed to Liverpool, N. S., in May, 1762, and 
remained thenceforward a loyal subject of the British crown. In the course of a long 
life he sustained with ability and popularity the various offices of justice, judge of pro- 
bate, town clerk, chief justice of the county courts, and colonel commandant of the 
militia. He was also member of the Provincial House of Representatives for nearly 
thirty yeai-s. The inscription on his grave-stone at Liverpool states that he was born 
at Norwich, Ct., Feb. 24, 1735, and died at Liverpool May 9, 1812. After his death a 
tablet was framed and suspended in the court-room where he had presided, containing 
an inscription of grateful respect, dedicated to his memory 

"By the Justices in Session." 



Seventh Society, or Hanover. 

This was incorporated as an ecclesiastical society in 1761. It included 
a small portion of Canterbury and Windliam. A fund of £1400 was 
raised by subscription for the support of the ministry, and a church of 
fourteen members gathered May 13, 1766, under the temporary ministry 
of Rev. Timothy Stone. A house for worship was erected about the 
same time. Rev. Andrew Lee, the first pastor, was ordained October 26, 
1768, and continued in office, fulfilling its duties without special assistance, 
for sixty-two years. In 1830, the Rev. Barnabas Phinney became his 
colleague. Dr. Lee died Aug. 25, 1832, aged 87. Mr. Phinney was 
dismissed the November following. 

Dr. Lee was a man of generous impulses, candid and liberal in senti- 
ment. Mr. Nelson, his friend and neighbor, said of him, " He was made 
originally on a noble scale, and his faculties were finely developed by 
careful and diligent culture."* He published a volume of sermons, and 
various separate discourses, which display vigorous thought and nice dis- 
crimination. He was, however, deficient in pulpit oratory, his delivery 
being heavy and monotonous. 

He was a son of John Lee, of Lyme, and born in 1745. His mother 
was Abigail Tully. Though a graduate of Yale College, he received the 
degree of S. T. D. from Harvard. 

Since the dismission of Mr. Phinney, the church has had the following 
pastors : 

Rev. Philo Judson, installed June 6, 1833 ; dismissed in December, 
1834. 

* Sprague's Am. Pulpit, p. 671. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 445 

Rev. Joseph Ayer, installed in September, 1837 ; dismissed in June, 
1848. 

Rev. James A. Hazen, installed in December, 1852 ; died Oct. 29, 
1862, aged 49. 

POPULATION OF LISBON. 

1800—1158 1840—1052 

1810-1128 1850— 938 

1830—1161 1860—1262 

The new town of Sprague takes away the north-west part of Lisbon, 
leaving the old town only one hundred and fifty voters and a grand list of 
about $200,000. 



Sprague. This town in the rapidity of its growth resembles the changes 
that often take place in western clearings. Lord's bridge, where the She- 
tucket was spanned to unite Lisbon and Franklin, and near which the 
Lord fiimily had dwelt in quiet agricultural pursuits for more than a cen- 
tury, — father, son and grandson living and dying on the spot, — was a 
secluded nook, without any foreshadowing of progress, or visible germ of 
enterprise. A grist-mill, a saw-mill, — coevals of the first planters, — a 
respectable farm-house, with its sign-post promising entertainment, (the 
usual appendage of a bridge,) and two or three smaller tenements, consti- 
tuted the hamlet. Only the casual floods and the romantic wildness of 
the river banks interfered with the changeless repose of the scene. 

Suddenly the blasting of rocks and the roar of machinery commenced ; 
hills were upset, channels were dug, the river tortured out of its willful- 
ness, and amid mountainous heaps of cotton-bags the rural scene disap- 
peared, and Baltic village leaped into existence. Li the course of five 
years, more than a hundred buildings, comprising neat and comfortable 
houses, several shops, a chui'ch, and a school-house, grouped around the 
largest mill on the western continent, had taken possession of the scene: 
the whole spreading like wings each side of the river, and linking together 
two distinct towns. 

These changes commenced in July, 1856, when the elder Governor 
Sprague of Rhode Island purchased 300 acres of land on the Slietueket, 
and laid the foundation of the great cotton-mill. In October of that year 
the projector and proprietor of this grand enterprise was removed from 
his work by sudden death, and it was feared that his magnificent schemes 
would never be realized. But his son and nephews continued the work 
without intermission, filling out his plans, and even enlarging the sphere 
of operation, till Lord's bridge became the site of a mammoth factory and 
the center of a new town. 



446 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The great mill is 954 feet long, 68 feet wide, and five stories high. 
The motive power is furnished by six water-wheels, each over thirty feet 
in diameter. In 1864, more than 1800 looms had been put in operation, 
and 1400 persons were employed by the company.* 

In 1861, the new town was incorporated by the name of Sprague. It 
comprises about twelve square miles of territory taken from Lisbon and 
Franklin, the Shetucket running through it from north to south. It is 
intersected also by the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad, which 
gives it the advantage of direct and easy transportation. "Within its 
bounds, besides the villages built up by the Spragues, it includes the 
greater part of Hanover society and the Eagleville manufacturing village 
on the east side of Lovett's bridge. At Hanover center, and on Beaver 
brook, woollen factories have been in operation for many years. Sprague 
is therefore pre-eminently a collection of mill villages. 

The first town-meeting in Sprague was held June 10, 1861, and this 
was celebrated as the birth-day of the town. Col. Ethan Allen of Han- 
over, moderator of the meeting, was chosen the first selectman. The 
mileage, as fixed by the Legislature, is 62 miles to New Haven, and 38 
to Hartford. 

Lovett's bridge and Lovett's grist-mills are old famihar names origin- 
ally belonging to Norwich. After the name of Lovett passed away, the 
fine mill situation in this neighborhood became the seat of the Tarbox 
cotton-factory. In 1852, the place was purchased by Mr. John Batchel- 
der and his associates, and the old mill being soon afterward destroyed by 
fire, a large brick building was erected on the site and devoted to the 
manufacture of seamless cotton bagging. Before the war, this mill gave 
employment to seventy or eighty persons, men, women, and children. It 
has since been purchased by a new company, the building enlarged, the 
machinery changed, and the whole transformed into a woollen-mill, under 
the agency of the Messrs. King, late of the firm of Wm. Elting & Co., 
Norwich. 

This place is now within the limits of Sprague, and is the seat of the 
Lisbon post-office, but is currently known as Eagleville.'\ 

* At the present time (1865), preparations are making for the erection of a new mill 
by the side of the other, of sufficient capacity for 3000 looms. 

t This name is said to have been suggested by the lighting of an eagle upon the 
cupola or summit of the belfry, just before the mill was completed, which the work- 
men hailed as a favorable omen, and named the place in honor of the royal bird. 
There is, however, another factory in the eastern part of the State, called Eagleville, 
and it is proposed to give to this village the name of Buckingham. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 44T 



Fifth or Long Society, sometimes called East Norwich. 

This ecclesiastical society comprised a long and comparatively narrow 
strip, lying east of the rivers Shetucket and Thames. Well might it be 
called Long, for it originally extended over the whole eastern border of 
the nine-miles-square, from Plainfield to Poquetannock, and this line of 
the original purchase, in its liberal measurement, was probably ten or 
twelve miles. 

The farmers on this side of the rivers petitioned the town as early as 
1699, to be released from paying ecclesiastical rates in Norwich, on 
account of the great inconvenience they found in attending divine wor- 
ship, by reason of the ferry and their distance from the town-plot. After 
crossing the river at the old fording-place, it was necessary to traverse a 
tedious winding path around the Chelsea hills, to get into the town street, 
and pass on to tlie meeting-house. The desired permission was not then 
granted, but twenty-one years later they were freely allowed to become a 
distinct parish, and sixty acres of land set apart for their first minister. 

The cliurcli was constituted in 172G, under the Rev. Jabez Wight, the 
first and only pastor ever settled among them. Mr. Wight was a native 
of Dedliam, Mass., and a graduate of Harvard College. His wife was 
Ruth Swan ; they had four sons, who became worthy members of society. 
He died in 1782, and the church seems to have died with him. No reg- 
ular public worship was held, and the meeting-house was allowed to decay 
and fall to pieces. 

In 1786, Long Society was annexed to Preston, and instead of the 
designation bth of Norwich, took that of 2d of Preston. 

In the year 1817, a fresh attempt was made to establish a worshiping 
assembly in this old society. A new meeting-house was built upon the 
ancient site, which was opened to all denominations of Christians. The 
services were kept up for a time on the system of voluntary contributions, 
but could not be pei'manently maintained, and soon ceased altogether. 

In August, 1837, still another effort was made, and at this time a small 
Congregational church was gathered with the assistance of Rev. Anson 
Gleason, who had been officiating as a missionary at Mohegan.* Tlie 
communion plate belonging to the old church of Mr. Wight, which had 
not been used for forty years, Avas brought out on this occasion. The 
attempt to resuscitate the church, hoAvever, was not successful. The 
members soon disbanded, and in 1857 the edifice was sold to the town of 
Preston for municipal use. 



* Mr. Gleason, for many years a missionary among the Mohegans and Choctaws, is 
now (1865) performing missionary duty in Brooklyn, N. Y. He was ordained at Mo- 
hegan, April 1, 1835. 



448 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

♦ 

The ancient burial-ground of Long Society lies around this building. 
Here we find the names of many of the early inhabitants, — Corning, 
Fitch, Giddings, Haskell, Harvey, Hillard, Pride, Roath, Truman, Wight, 
"Williams, &c. 

One of the oldest inscribed stones perpetuates the memory of the first 
deacon of Mr. Wight's church. 

HERE LAIS THE 

BODY OF DEACON 

BENIAMIN FITCH 

DIED OCTr 19 

1727 in y' 37"' YEAR 

OF HIS AGE. 

Inscription on the Grave-stone of Rev. Mr. Wight. 

" Sacred to the memory of Rev. Jabez Wight, 
late Pastor of the Church of Christ in the 2d Society 
in Preston, who in the 56th year of his ministry and 
82d. of his age, on the 15th day of Sept., 1782, 
Entered into the joy of his Lord. 

Zion may in his fall bemoan, 
A Beauty and a pillar gone." 

An obituai'y notice of Mr. Wight says of him : 

"Fond of retirement from the bustling world, he was apparently never so happy as 
when travelling the road of an unnoticed humility." 



Jewett City. In 1816, the northern part of Preston was made an inde- 
pendent town with the name of Griswold. This new township included a 
strip of land on the east side of the Quinebaug, south of Plainfield, which 
was originally a part of the Norwich purchase. The flourishing society 
of Jewett City lies upon this Norwich strip, and thus comes within our 
notice as an original part of the nine-miles-square. 

Eliezer Jewett, to whom this beautiful village is indebted for its origin 
and its name, was not a man of finished education, or of any peculiar 
mental power, but active, persevering, and of a genial, kindly tempera- 
ment, happy in doing good and opening paths of enterprise for the benefit 
of others, without laboring to enrich himself. Beginning with only a' 
small farm and a mill-seat on the Pachaug river, he lived to see a flour- 
ishing village spread around him, enriched with mills, stores, mechanical 
operations, and farms in an improved state of tillage, to which the public 
gave the familiar name of Jewett- City, a popular substitute for Jewett-ville 
or Jewett-farms. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 449 

He had at first a gri^t-mill, and to thh lie added a saw-mill, and sold 
out portions of land to induce others to settle near him. About the year 
179Q, he was joined by John Wilson, a clothier from Massachusetts, whom 
he encouraged to set up a fulling-mill.* We learn from Wilson's adver- 
tisement that he was ready at his mill to accommodate the public in De- 
cember, 1793. 

In 1S04, Elisha Rose had an oil-mill in the neighborhood, and the same 
year John Scholfield, Jr., set a carding-machine in operation upon the 
same stream, advertising that he had a complete set of machinery for 
picking, breaking and carding wool ; terms, 12 cts. per lb. 

The Scholfield establishment was subsequently purchased by Mr. Wil- 
son, whose enterprise assisted largely in the growth and prosperity of the 
village. He was a man of solid sense and dignified deportment ; highly 
valued as a citizen. By a change of boundaries, and new acts of incor- 
poration, he became an inhabitant of three different towns, and at distinct 
periods was a selectman of Norwich, of Preston, and of Griswold, with- 
out changing his abode. 

In 1820, Mr. Wilson sold the woolen-mill to J. G. W. Trumbull and 
John Breed. It was destroyed by fire in 1827, and not rebuilt by the 
owners. Slater's magnificent cotton-mill now occupies the site. 

In 1814, the Fanning Manufacturing Company, consisting of four part- 
ners, Charles Fanning, Christopher Avery, Joseph Stanton and Joseph C. 
Tyler, erected a mill upon the river, not ffir from Scholfield's, and began 
the manufacture of cotton yarn and cotton cloth. Christopher Lippitt 
was their agent. 

A house of worship w^as erected in the settlement in 1814, and a churclt> 
gathered on an Episcopal basis, called St. George's Church. Its first and 
only Ejnscopal minister was Rev. Ammi Rogers, v/ho proved to be a man 
of blighted reputation, unworthy to preach the gospel. Whgii this became- 
known, his congregation fell away, and he left the place in 1818.t 

A Congregational society was organized in 1825, and the church was 
made over to them by the residuary proprietors of the building. This" 
church has had five ministers : 

Rev. Setli Bliss, ordained June 15, 1825. 
Rev. George Perkins, installed Aug. 8, 1832. 
Rev. William Wright, ordained Nov. 8, 1838. 
Rev. Thomas L. Shipman, installed April .5, 1843. 
Rev. Henry T. Cheevcr, installed May 29, 1856. 

Since 1861, they have had no settled pastor. 

* Mr. Wilson married Mr. Jewett's daughter. The late Increase Wilson of New- 
London was one of his sons. 

t New Year's Sermon by Rev. T. L. Shipman, 1856. 
29 



450 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Of these ministers, the Rev. Mr. Shipman is most familiarly associated 
with the history of the church. His pastorate of ten years was the long- 
est, and since his dismission, by residing in the place and officiating as 
pastor whenever vacancies occurred, he has almost doubled that term of 
service. 

Jewett City has also a flourishing Baptist church, which of late years 
has gathered within its sphere of influence a large proportion of the in- 
habitants of the village. The house of worship was dedicated in 1844. 

Two factories on a grand scale have of late years been added to Jewett 
City, greatly enhancing the population and importance of the place ; viz., 
the cotton-mill of John F. & W. Slater, and that of the Ashland Cotton 
Company. 

These mills, with others that are projected, and the large amount of 
water-power in the vicinity, yet unexpended, afford presumptive evidence 
that Jewett City will become one of the largest manufacturing villages in 
the State. 

In the burial-ground of the village, opened since the year 1 800, a slab 
of red sandstone points out the grave of the founder and gives an epitome 
of his history. 

In Memory of Mr. 
Eliezer Jewett, who 
Died Deer. 7, 1817, 
in the 87th year of his age. 



In April 1771 he began 
the settlement of this village, 
and from his persevering industry 
and active benevolence, it has 
derived its present importance. 

Its name will perpetuate his memory. 

Mr. JcAvett's ancestry has not been clearly ascertained. It is probable, 
liowever, that he was a native of Lisbon, and of the third or fourth gen- 
eration in descent from an ancestor of the same name who was an inhab- 
itant in 1702, and is supposed to have come from Rowley, Mass. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Episcopal Church. 

Tradition is the only source from which any thing has been ascer- 
tained respecting the first rise of the Episcopal Church in Norwich. 
From this authority we learn that the first Church of England men in the 
place were Thomas Grist and Edmund Gookin, who were "allowed as 
inhabitants" in 1726. 

Mr. Grist, according to report, was born in England, but came early to 
this country, settled in Norwich, and married in 1721, Ann, daughter of 
Samuel Birchard. 

In 1734, Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, (a graduate of Yale College in 
1726,) who had been four years settled over a Congregational churcli in 
North Groton, avowed his preference for the Church of England, and 
having obtained a dismission from his charge, crossed the Atlantic to be 
re-ordained. He returned with a commission from the Society for Prop- 
agating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and had Norwich, Groton and 
Hebron assigned to him as a missionary circuit. 

A small church was gathered at Poquetannock about the year 1738 by 
Mr. Punderson, who also held occasional services in Norwich, at the 
houses of Messrs. Gookin and Grist, the former living on Bean Hill,* 
and the latter not far from the Meeting-house Green. Gradually, and at 
first privately, a little band of ten or a dozen persons assembled on such 
occasions, to whom the ordinances of the Church were administered. In 
this part of the town they had no organized society, or house for worship, 
but the Gookin and Grist families, until their extinction, were faithful and 
devoted adherents to the Church. 

The society at Chelsea grew out of this beginning. When it came to 
the question of embodying in chui'ch estate and building a house of wor- 
ship, it was decided that the center should be at Chelsea. There is no 

* The Gookin honse was on the central plat of Bean Hill, " bounded southerly on 
the main road and easterly on the Green : " (now hclon<;ing to C C. Williams.) The 
last of the Gookin family in Norwich was an aneient spinster, Miss Anna Gookin, 
who held a life interest in the house for more than thirty years, and died in 1810, aged 
about eighty. 



452 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

record extant of the first organization of either the church or society. A 
piece of ground for the site of a church edifice was given by Capt. Bena- 
jah Bushnell, "at the north-east end of Waweequaw's hill, near the old 
Landing Place," and on the 7th of January, 1746-7, a meeting was held 
at the town-house, to decide matters relative to the erection of an edifice 
"for the service of Almighty God, according to the Liturgie of the Church 
of England, as by law established." 

The officers appointed at this meeting were : 

Rev. Mr. Punderson, Moderator. 

Capt. Benajah Bushnell, Treasurer. 

Capt. Isaac Clarke, ^ 

Mr. Thomas Grist, > Building Committee. 

Mr. Elisha Hide, ) 

The funds for building were raised by subscription ; 87 names being 
enrolled on the subscription list, and the sum obtained £678. The great- 
est amount by one individual was £50 by Andrew Galloway. The three 
gentlemen who formed the building committee subscribed £40 each. Mr. 
Punderson afterwards collected in Rhode Island, £138, and Capt. Bush- 
nell in Boston, £178. All this was probably Old Tenor money, or Bills 
of Credit, of reduced value. 

The land and the church, when erected, were conveyed by deed to the 
committee, in trust — 

" For the use of the ' Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts,' and their 
successors forevermore, to be appropriated for an Episcopal church and church-yard 
for the benefit of an Episcopal minister and members of said church, and for no other 
use, intent or purpose whatsoever." 

This edifice stood upon the site now occupied by Christ Church. Ac- 
cording to tradition It was a substantial structure, but plain and unadorned, 
with neither porch nor spire, and a single granite block at the door for a 
threshold stone. It was completed in 1749. The number of pew-holders 
was twenty-eight ; they built their own pews and held them as their proper 
estate. The first church officers were : 



Capt. Benajah Bushnell, ) ^Tardem. 

Capt. Joseph Tracy, ) 

Capt. Isaac Clarke, \ 

Capt. Thomas Grist, > Vestrymen. 

Capt. Daniel Hall, ) 

Elisha Hide, Cleric of the. Church. 

Phineas Holdcn, Society Clerk. 



Mr. Punderson had the prime agency In forming this church, and was 
its first officiating clergyman ; but in 1751 he Avas transferred by the soci- 
ety in England to New Haven, to take charge of an Episcopal society in 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 463 

that place, and to perform missionary service in the neighboring parishes. 
He removed about ten years later to Rye, where he died.* His relict, 
Mrs. Hannah Punderson, died at Poquetannock in Groton, Feb. 23, 1792, 
in the 80th year of her age. She was interred at Norwich. The table- 
stone that covers her grave is directly in front of Christ Church, and 
bears the following record of her husband : 

" Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, Founder and first minister of this Parish, died in 1771, 
aged 63." 

After Mr. Punderson's departure, the Norwich chux'ch remained eleven 
years without a pastor, but was kept from extinction by the zeal of its 
members in holding lay services, and the occasional ministrations of Mr. 
Seabury of New London, and his successor, Mr. Gi'aves. 

In 1760, a subscription was raised in the society for Mr. John Beards- 
ley, "towards his inoculation and going to England for orders, that he may 
preach in the churches of England, at Norwich and Groton." An engage- 
ment was at the same time entered into with him, to pay the annual sum 
of £33 towards his support, when he should become their minister, which 
he did in the spring of 1763. The number of male communicants in the 
Chelsea church was at this time about twenty. 

The Groton church mentioned, is the one already alluded to in the vil- 
lage of Poquetannock. That village lies at the head of a creek or cove, 
which runs out of the Thames about four miles below the Landing. It 
was early settled, being considered a fine location for fishing, building sea- 
craft, and exporting wood and timber. A part of it lies in Groton, and it 
was within the bounds of that town that the Episcopal church was built. 
It has been generally dependent upon the Norwich church for the admin- 
istration of the ordinances, but has been sustained to the present time, and 
is the only church at Poquetannock ; no other denomination ever having 
gathered a church or built a house of worship in that village. 

Mr. Beardsley, after his return from England, officiated as pastor of the 
Norwich church about five years. He was then transferred by the society 
under whose auspices he labored, to Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

In 1767, a lot of land for a glebe was given by Mrs. Zerviah Bushnell, 
relict of Capt. Benajah, and conveyed by deed to the Society for Propa- 
gating the Gospel in Foreign Parts.f On this lot a glebe-house or manse 
was erected. 

In 1768, an agreement was made with John Tyler, of Wallingford, 
Conn., by which £60 sterling money of Great Britain was advanced to 



* He had two sons, bom in Groton ; Ebenezer in 1735, Cyrus in 1737. 
t This deed was annulled by an act of the Legislature in 1835, and the glebe became 
private property. 



454 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

him, to defray the expenses of a voyage to England to receive ordination ; 
he, on his part, engaging to return and officiate as their priest, at a salary 
of £30 per annum. The money was raised by subscription, and the list 
contains eighty names. 

Mr. Tyler, after embracing the doctrines of the Church of England, 
had been prepared for holy orders under the instruction of Dr. Johnson 
of Stamford. He was ordained by the Bishop of London in June, 1768,* 
and the next year entered on his duties at Norwich, officiating also at 
Poquetannock every fourth Sunday. 

The parish record begun by Mr. Tyler is entitled, '■'•Notitia Parochialis 
of my mission at Norwich." The tirst child baptized by him was The- 
ophila, daughter of John and Delight Grist, Sept. 3, 1769. 

Soon after the settlement of Mr. Tyler, the great struggle for liberty 
commenced, and all other concerns were affected by it, swept as it were 
into the majestic current. Public opinion made it necessary for the Epis- 
copal clergy either to omit that part of their liturgy which contained 
prayers for the King and Parliament, or suspend their public service. 
Mr. Tyler and his people chose the latter course. 

Through all the Northern Colonies this was the test offered to Church- 
men — Will you drop the prayers for royalty ? But neither clergy nor 
people were in general prepared to yield the point. Many of the churches 
had originated under English patronage, and their pastors were on the 
footing of missionaries deriving their support from England. This bound 
them with a strong tie to the mother country, and they held out long in 
their loyalty. 

In the Southern States the Episcopalians almost uniformly took the 
patriotic side, and this was attributed mainly to the independence of the 
clergy. They did not, like those at the North, draw their support from 
the mother country. 

The church at Norwich was closed for three years, no entry being made 
on the records from April, 1776, to April, 1779. But it is remembered 
that during a part of this time at least, Mr. Tyler held a service in his 
own house. Various instances occurred of harsh language, and petty per- 
secution of churchmen, but no violent exhibitions of displeasure were 
made.f Mr. Tyler was prudent, quiet, and reserved. A part of his 
congregation cordially favored independence, and family influence like- 
wise operated in his favor; his father-in-law, Isaac Tracy, Esq., being 
deacon of the Congregational church, and an avowed patriot. 

* The original commission to exercise his office in America, executed by Richard 
(Herrick) Lord Bishop of London, June 29, 1768, is preserved by the family. 

t It is said that Mr. Grist, the Englishman, and his neighbor, Richard Hyde, Esq., 
had frequent and sharp disputes, but they never went further than a threatening shake 
of the fist and a final splutter, through fixed teeth, of You tory ! and You rebel I 




-?x^ed. ....; r^uttre.Se*'^'"^ 



OKDArerED HT TEE BISHOP OF LCNDOK, 1768 
Rector Of CHRIST CHURCH.Norwcli.Conn.for 54 Years. 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 455 

When the church was again opened, the pi'ayers for the King and Par- 
liament were omitted, but the congregation had dwindled to an audience 
of about twenty persons. Under the popular ministry of Mr. Tyler, 
however, the society gradually increased in numbers and influence. In 
1780 the church was repaired, and a porch, bell and steeple added.* 
But the location was considered inconvenient, and in 1789 the society 
decided on removing to a more central position, A lot was proffered by 
Phineas Holden, near the east end of Main street, "opposite the house of 
Capt. Stephen Colver," and accepted by the parish. 

To this spot the old edifice, which had stood about forty years, was 
removed, and there enlarged and remodeled. The former owners of the 
pews relinquished their rights, the seats were sold, and the money applied 
to parochial uses. The new purchasers were thirty in number. 

The committee for removing and reconstructing the church were Major 
Ebenezer Whiting, Barzillai Davison, Benadam Denison, and James 
Christie. 

It was dedicated May 19, 1791, by the Rev. Dr. Seabury, Bishop of 
Connecticut, to the worship of God "according to the liturgy of the 
Church of England accommodated to the civil constitution of these Amer- 
ican States." • 

Ebenezer Whiting, I p^.„,^,„,. 

Ebenezer Huntington, ) 

Jabez Huntington, Societi/ Clerk. 

The designation of "Christ's Church in Chelsea" first appears on record 
in 1785. 

With the exception of the political jealousy during the Revolutionary 
contest, the Episcopalians and Congregutionalists of Norwich have never 
exhibited any acrimony against each other. On the contrary, social inter- 
course has been generally maintained, irrespective of denominational 
bounds, and the two sects have in many instances interchanged civilities, 
in a truly courteous and Christian spirit. 

At a very early period we find that the Episcopal church employed the 
Congregational collector to collect Mr. Tyler's rates. Invitations have 
sometimes been cordially given to the Episcopalians to celebrate their 
festivals in the larger edifices of the Congregationalists, wliich have been 
cheerfully accepted ; and in two instances at least, when the latter have 
been by sudden disasters deprived for a season of a place of worship, the 
doors of Christ's Church have been freely opened to them. One instance 
from the records may be given. 

* In January, 1786, Mr. John Wood, from White Haven, England, was ordained in 
this church by Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury — first as deacon, and two days later as priest. 
He was appointed to labor in Hampton, Va. 



456 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

" At a legal meeting of the Episcopal Parish of Christ's Church, in Norwich, on 
"Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1794, Thomas Mumford, Moderator, 

" Voted, that this meeting, taking into consideration that the Presbyterian church 
iu this place, of which the Rev. Walter King is Pastor, are destitute of a convenient 
place in which to attend public worship, their meeting-house having been lately de- 
stroyed by fire, do consent to accommodate said Presbyterian society until Easter 
Monday, 1795, as follows : the ReV^ John Tyler, our present pastor, to perform divine 
service one half the day on each Sabbath, and the Rev. Walter King, pastor of said 
Presbyterian congregation, to perform divine service the other half of said Sabbath, 
alternately performing on the first part of the day." 

For this kind and considerate courtesy, the obliged party passed a vote 
of acknowledgment and thanks, which was inserted upon the records of 
both societies. The offer was accepted, and this amicable arrangement 
lasted for three months. 

Mr. Tyler died Jan. 20, 1823, in the 81st year of his age, after a pas- 
torate of 54 years. He was an interesting preacher ; his voice sweet and 
solemn, and his eloquence persuasive. The benevolence of his heart was 
manifested in daily acts of courtesy and charity to those around him. He 
studied medicine in order to benefit the poor, and to find out remedies for 
some of those peculiar diseases to which no common specifics seemed to 
apply. His pills, ointments, extracts and syrups obtained a great local 
celebrity. During the latter years of his life, he was so infirm as to need 
assistance in the performance of his functions. 

Rev. Peter J. Clark served as his assistant for two or three years, and 
was succeeded by the Rev. Seth B. Paddock, who, on the death of the 
venerable incumbent, became rector of the church. The age and long 
infirmity of Dr. Tyler had operated against the growth and efficiency of 
the parish, and when Mr. Paddock's pastorate commenced, the congrega- 
tion was small, and the sacred edifice itself in a decaying state. During 
his rectorship a new church was built and the influence of the society 
largely increased. 

In his farewell sermon, Mr. Paddock says : 

" Within the twenty-two and a half years of my ministry there have been connected 
with the parish 380 families. Of these I found in it less than 40. More than 150 now 
remain, and about 190 have become extinct or removed to other parts." 

Mr. Paddock resigned the pastorate in 1844, and took charge of an 
academy in Cheshire, Ct., at which place he died in 1851. He was a 
man of great integrity and piety; amiable in all the relations of life. 

Rectors of Christ Church since Mr. Paddock : 

Rev. William F. Morgan ; in office twelve years and a half, from Sep- 
.tember, 1844, to March, 1857. He then accepted a call to St. Thomas' 
\Church, New York. 

The parish at that time reported 206 families; 210 communicants. 



HISTOUY OF NORWICH. 457 

Rev. J. Treadwell Walden ; in office six years. He resigned in March, 
1863, in order to take charge of" St. Clement's Church, Philadelphia. 

Rev. David F. Banks, the present pastor. 

Two churches, both costly and imposing edifices, were erected by this 
society within the compass of twenty years — from 1828 to 1848. The 
first was during the rectorship of Mr. Paddock. It stands on a lot extend- 
ing from IMain to Church street, a few rods west of the former church,* 
The whole cost, including organ and furniture, was about $13,000. It 
was consecrated by the diocesan Bishop, Rev. Thomas C. Brownell, July 
29, 1829. This has since changed its designation, and is now Trinity 
Church. -■'' 

In 18>1:6, during the rectorship of Mr. Morgan, the societ}'- decided to 
resume for church service, the old Bushnell site on Washington street, 
from which the church was removed sixty years previous, and which had 
since been used as a cemetery. On this spot, over the ashes of the dead, 
another church edifice, of an antique style of architecture, was erected at 
a cost of nearly $50,000. A tower separate from the church formed a 
part of the original plan, but this has never been built. 

The corner-stone was laid by Bishop Lee, of Delaware, Aug. 31, 1846, 
and the church consecrated in 1848. 

When the society removed to this new edifice, they carried their desig- 
nation, Christ Church, with them, and the house they left was for a short 
time cloi^ed. It was soon, however, re-opened as a chapel, or dependent 
upon Christ Church, but this arrangement was of short duration. In 
1850, a new and independent parish was organized, the edifice purchased, 
and a second Episcopal church inaugurated, with the title of Trinity 
Church. 

Rectors: Rev. Edward O. Flagg, from May, 1849, to 1853. 

Rev. Benjamin H. Paddock, (a native of the town, and son of a former 
rector of Christ Church,) from August, 1853, to 1860. 

Rev. Joha V. Lewis, from 1860 to August, 1865, when he accepted a 
call to Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Tyler is the only rector of the Episcopal Church in Norwich who 
has died while in office. 

After the removal of the old church edifice from the Bushnell lot in 
1790, the site being v/holly appropriated to interments, soon became 
seeded with the dead. Here the fathers that had founded the church 
were laid in their last resting-places. Here were gathered the remains 



* The old edifice was taken dowa and sold to an Episcopal association in Salem, 
Ct., to which phice it was removed and reconstructed about 1830. Services were held 
in it for a few years by Episcopalians and Methodists, but tiie congregation declined, 
and it was subsequently purchased by the town. Tlie spire, tower and pews were 
removed ; tlio building was appropriated to civil affairs, and is still extant as the town- 
house on Salem Green. 



458 HISTORY OF NOEWICH. 

of Rev. John Tyler and his wife, Mrs. Hannah Tyler, and of Mrs. Han- 
nah Punderson, relict of the first minister. Here were buried Benajah 
Bushnell and wife ; Thomas Grist at the age of 82 ; Phineas Holden, 76, 
and his wife Zerviah, 85 ; the second Capt. Richard Bushnell, 74 ; his 
relict Prudence, 76, and his maiden daughter Hannah, 87. 

Others brought here at a later date, extinct under a burden of years, 
were Barziilai Davison, dying in 1828, aged 90; Solomon Hamilton, 
1798, aged 87; Sarah, relict of Samuel Brown, 1795, in her 95th year; 
Lemuel Warren, " Clerk of Christ Church," 1812, aged 79, and near him 
his wife and three maiden daughters. 

As persons of some note resting in this cemeteiy, we may notice the 
two Malbones, Capt. Evan and Capt. Solomon, merchants who removed 
to Norwich from Newport during the Revolutionary war ; the former died 
in 1781, aged 73, and the latter in 1787, aged 76. The relict of Evan 
Malbone, and his only daughter, with her husband, Capt. Samuel Johnson, 
repose with them. 

The earliest date found is 1757, which appears on the stones commem- 
orative of Capt. John Culver, aged 60, and Thomas Griste, 25. 

Other names insci'ibed here, of persons respectable as citizens and heads 
of families, were these : 

Albertus Siraut Destoixches, a native of Bordeaux, died Dec. 17, 1796, aged 59. 
Bentley Faulkner, died in 1776, aged 42. 
Capt. Allen Ingraham, died in 1785, aged 42. 
Capt. William Wattles, died in 1787, aged 48. 
-' Capt. Solomon Whipple, died in 1787, aged 48. '/ 
Matthew Leffingwell, died in 1797, aged 59. 
Robert Lancaster, died in 1770, aged 76. 
Capt. William Davison, died in 1803, aged 40. 
Doctor Nathan Tisdale, died in 1830, aged 58. 

When the new church was built on the old site, the stones but not the 
relics of the dead were removed ; the edifice was erected over the sacred 
repository. The graves of the Rev. Mr. Tyler and his wife were just 
under the altar. The monumental stone of the former has this inscrip- 
tion : 

Here lie interred 

The earthly remains of 

The Rev. John Tyler, 

For 54 years Rector of Christ's 

Churcli in this City. Having 

faithfully fulfilled his ministry. 

He was ready to be dissolved 

and to be with Christ. 

His soul took its flight 

from this Vale of Misery 

Jan'y 20, 1823, in the 81st 

year of his ago. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH 



459 



Col. Samuel Tyler, in business at the Lantling for more tliaii sixty 
years, as a druggist, was the only son of Rector Tyler that lived to ma- 
turity. He died Sept. 20, 1854. 

CHURCHES RECAPITULATED. 

1st. Built in 1749, on the Bushnell lot, at the base of Waweekus Hill, 
(now Washington street.) 

2d. Reconstructed on the Holden lot, " opposite the house of Capt. Ste- 
phen Colver," Main street. The frame and other materials of the former 
church were removed and used in the building, which was therefoi*e both 
new and old. It was relinquished in 1829, taken down and removed. 
The Main street Congregational church was built on the site in 1844, but 
destroyed by fire in 1854. A free church has since been erected by the 
Methodists on the same ground, making three successive churches, of 
three different denominations, on the spot. 

3d. "Built of stone, in 1828, on a lot extending from Main to Church 
street; relinquished to Trinity Church in 1850. 

4th. Built of stone, in 1847, on the old Bushnell site, where the first 
church stood. 



Half-century ministers, settled fifty years or more over one congrega- 
tion within the orisrinal bounds of Norwich : 



James Fitch, 


56 y 


ears. 




Benjamin Lord, D. D., 


67 






Joseph Strong, D. D., 
Andrew Lee, D. D., 


56 
64 


u 


• Congregationj 


Levi Nelson, 


51 






Jabez Wight, 


56 






John Tyler, 


54 




Episcopalian. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Sixth, or Chelsea Society ; now the Second. 

The Sixth Society was organized Nov. 29, 1751 : Capt. Jabez Dean, 
moderator of the meeting. 

Daniel Kingsbury was chosen Society Clerk. 

Capt. Dean, Eleazar Waterman, and Nathaniel Backus, Society and 
School Committee. 

Prosper Wetmoi-e chosen Collector, but excused, and Ebenezer Fitch 
substituted. 

Capt. Dean was commissioned to procure a minister, and directed to 
apply first to Mr. Elijah Lathrop of Windham. A regular service was 
not, however, commenced until April, 1752, when Mr. John Curtice was 
the officiating clergyman. He remained with the society to the close of 
the year, boarding at Mr. John Elderkin's tavern, and receiving for pay 
what was collected by voluntary contributions. The service was held in 
private houses, and the people were called together by the tap of the 
drum. 

Early in 1755, Mr. Ebenezer Cleveland was engaged to preach for a 
year, and paid by monthly contributions. The same year a funeral pall, 
bier and burying-ground were purchased. The latter was a well-wcoded 
lot, comprising an acre and a half, and the wood cut from it paid the whole 
expense. The purchase was made of Jonathan Bushnell, May 24, 1755. 
It has since been enlarged, and is still used as the society burial-ground. 
Though now girdled with the habitations of the living, it is a place of 
unusual interest, beautified with many appropriate monuments, hallowed 
by the remains of the good, the beautiful, and the beloved, and from the 
elevation of its site, overlooking in calm repose the turmoil of the city. 

In March, 1756, it was proposed to engage Mr. John Fuller to preach 
the gospel, " if he may be had ; " but there is no evidence that Mr. Fuller 
or any other minister was obtained, or that for three or four years after-* 
wards they had any regular Sabbath service. 

June 30, 1759. " At a society meeting it was voted to give llev. Nathaniel Whita- 
ker a call to settle in the work of the gospel ministry, provided he shall be regularly 
dismissed from his present charge, and provided he and those who shall form them- 
selves into a church shall agree in matters of faith and practice." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 461 

Mr. Whitaker decided to accept this call. The salary was fixed at 
£100 per annum, with the pledge of a settlement of £100, when tlie gen- 
eral list of the society (exclusive of the lists of churchmen and those 
excused by law from paying ministerial rates) should amount to £G,000. 
These votes were ratified and confirmed on the last day of the year. Mr. 
Whitaker arrived with his family and goods, by water, April 12, 1760. 
A room for preaching had been prepared in the tavern kept by Samuel 
Trapp, (afterwards the well-known residence of Capt. Benjamin Coit,) 
and a bell to take the place of the Sabbath drum was suspended in the 
rear of the house, from a scaffolding erected upon a rock.* 

In organizing the church, some difficulties occurred. As a natural con- 
sequence of his antecedent connections, Mr. Whitaker was attached to the 
Presbyterian polity, and urged its adoption as the platform of the church. 
The articles drawn up by him were thoroughly Presbyterian, agreeing 
with those of the Church of Scotland, though several of the society vig- 
orously contended for the Congregational form. 

Tiie church record, which begins with that day, says : 

After many endeavours the church was feathered and formed by signing a Covenant 
and articles of faith under the direction of the Rev. Messrs. Jabez Wight and Benjamin 
Throop on the 24th day of July, 17G0. These signed : 

Nathaniel Whitaker, Isaiah Tiffany, 

Nathaniel Backus, Nathaniel Shipman, 

John Porter, Seth Alden.t 

Messrs. Backus and Shipman recorded their dissent from some of the 
articles, and it was mutually agreed to leave the whole matter to the 
decision of the installing council. This council, composed of ministers 
and delegates from eight neighboring churches, met the day previous to 
the installation and recommended that the Presbyterian plan should be 
laid aside, and no human form adopted at present, but that they should 
take the word of God for their rule and directory, in discipline and man- 
ners, as well a? faith, and not use any platforms of human composition for 
their assistance in understanding the word, until God should give them 
light in a more explicit manner. To this decision the church assented. 

Mr. Whitaker was installed Feb. 25, 1761. Dr. Lord of the First 
Society preached the sermon. Mr. Wheelock of Lebanon, Mr. Throop 

* Items of the Society expenditure : 

Jan. 1G71. To pay the freight of Mr. Whitakcr's family and goods from ye Jcrsies 
to this place in April last, £12. 

To Capt. Trap for ye use of his house 9 months to hold public worship in, £4:10, 
and 20s. for hanging and ringing the bell. 

Capt. Trapp was afterwards paid for his house £C per year. 

t Tifuiny was from the Lebanon church ; Porter from the church in Mansfield ; 
Backus and Shipman from the first aud Alden from the fourth church in Norwich. 



462 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

of the Fourth or New Concord society, and Mr. Hezekiah Lord of Pres- 
ton, took part in the services. At this time six oth^r persons, previously 
members of neighboring churches, united with the church, signing the 
articles in presence of the installing council. 

Jonathan Huntington, Jabez Dean, 

"William Capron, Eleazar Waterman, 

Caleb Whitney, Ebenezer Fitch. 

No church at this period had been built, and the installation services 
were held under the wide canopy of heaven. From a notice in the printed 
sermon of Dr. Lord, we learn that some passages were omitted in the 
delivery, out of compassion to the audience thus exposed to the wintry 
air "«'« the open field." It would be interesting to know the precise gath- 
ering-place. 

The reverend teacher mildly alludes to the controversy that had so long 
agitated the people, by expressing a wish that " Christ's little flock, his 
people in this place," would henceforth "agree to keep together in one 
Fold, without any more discord, or divided interests." 

The first appointment of church officers on record, is Dec. 30, 1763, 
when four elders were chosen to office, viz., Messrs. Jabez Dean, Nathan- 
iel Shipman, Isaiah Tiffany, and Jonathan Huntington. 

The subject of erecting a house of worship was discussed at a society 
meeting held at the house of William Davison in June, 1757, but no 
decision was made till Jan. 4, 1760, when two-thirds of all persons quali- 
fied to vote in the society were present, and the resolution passed to build 
a meeting-house. 

A lot eligibly situated was found, the county court gave their warranty 
to set up a stake on the spot, a building committee was appointed, and a 
plan of the house formed. It was to have sixty pews, which were to be 
sold at a price that would cover the whole expense of the building. 

But at this stage of the proceeding it was found that the lot was too 
small for the purpose, and the conmiittee gave notice that the adjoining 
proprietors, Samuel Bliss and Daniel Tracy, would not sell an inch. The 
project therefore, which seemed so feasible, fell through. The court 
ox'dered the stake to be removed, and Chelsea was left three and a half 
years longer without a regular house of worship. 

It was not easy to find a convenient site. The streets and buildings 
were closely packed along the narrow border of the headland, and the 
high ridges that frowned over them were partly forested, and everywhere 
rugged and pi-ecipitous. The perpendicular ascents had not yet been 
taught to glide into gentle slopes ; people had not begun to build above, 
and land below was scarce and costly. 

In 1763, a lot was purchased of Isaac Huntington at 70s. per square 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 463 

rod, and a meeting-house 37 feet by 41 erected on the spot. A memorial 
was presented to the General Assembly for assistance in the undertaking, 
and a sum of money (the income of the excise tax) was granted to the 
society from the public treasury. It appears that Capt. Trai)p was paid 
for the use of his house to the 12th of July, 1764, and it is probable that 
after that time the meeting-house, though then but a shell, was used for 
the Sabbath service. The bell was removed from its old position on the 
rock, and suspended from the limb of a large tree near the door. This 
church stood on a part of the area now occupied by Mansfield's block of 
brick buildings. It was completed in 17G6, and thirty-three pews marked 
out, besides one at the right of the pulpit for the minister. The basement 
was let out for mercantile purposes. The first year, seventeen spaces for 
pews were sold, each pew being expected to accommodate two families, 
which could easily be done, as most of the young people, above the age of 
children, were accustomed to sit in the galleries. 

It may be interesting at the present day to read a list of the pew-hold- 
ers, particularly to see who were associated in the same pew. 

No. 1. The Minister and his family. 

>^-2. Seth Harding and Williiim Rockwell. — - 

I 3. Sybile Crocker and Jonathan Lester. 

7. Thomas Trapp, Jr., and Steplien Barker. 

9. Jabez Dean and Elijah Lothrop. 

10. John Tracy and Peter Lanman. 

11. Joseph Trumbull and Jabez Perkins. 

12. Ephraim Bill and Hugh Ledlie. 

13. Ebenezer Fillmore, Jr., and Timothy Herrick. 

1 4. William Coit and Simeon Carew. 

18. Nathaniel Backus and Nathaniel Backus, Jr. 

19. Abel Brewster and John Martin. 
21. David Lamb and Moses Pierce. 

23. j/Benajah Leffingwell and Ezra Backus. 

I'S. Benjamin Hiintington and Natlianiel Shipmaa. 

26. Joseph Smith and Isaac Park. 

27. Stephen Roath and Stephen Roatli, Jr. 

The omitted numbers were allotted to the space which remained unsold, 
until Mr. Judson's ordination. 

In the meantime, before the com[)letion of the meeting-house, a portion 
of Mr. Wliitaker's church became dissatisfied witli his ministry. They 
accus(;d him of stepping aside from his duty as a clergyman, to engage in 
trade, and in this line, of having aftenijtted to monopolize the vending of 
wine, raisins, &c., in the society. A council was called, before which 
these charges were laid, but no decision obtained. Whilv the matter was 
still agitated, the Connecticut Board of Correspondence for Indian Affairs 
nominated Mr. Whitaker to accompany Occom, the Mohegan preacher, on 



464 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

a mission to Europe, to solicit benefactions for the endowment of "Moor's 
Indian Charity School " at Lebanon, which was under the charge of the 
Rev. Mr. Wheelock. ^ 

When this project was laid before the society, they refused their con- 
sent to Mr. Whitaker's acceptance of the office. Another meeting was 
called, and the vote reconsidered, but with the same result. It is evident 
that while a few members were bent on compelling him to relinquish the 
pastorate,* the majority were sincerely attached to his ministrations, and 
unwilling to part with him. Two advisory councils were called, and it 
was at length proposed that Mr. Whitaker should be allowed to accept the 
agency without dissolving his relation to the church, but that he should 
relinquish his salary during his absence ; his people to have the privilege 
of settling another minister before his return, if they chose ; and if such 
an event took place, he was to be considered as dismissed. If he should 
return before the settlement of another minister, a council was to be con- 
vened to decide whether he should continue with them or be dismissed. 
This conciliatory proposition, which emanated from Dr. Lord of the First 
Society, was accepted. 

Jan. 9, 1766. The parties present at publishing this advice manifested their accept- 
ance thereof, and further signified it by signing, as follows : 

Nathaniel Whitaker, Thomas Trapp, Jr. Nathaniel Shipman, 

Joshua Prior, Abiel Cheney, Gershom Breed, / 

Gurdon Huntington, Lemuel Warren, Benjamin Dennis, ^ 

Benajah Leffingwell, Prosper Wetmore, Nathaniel Backus, Jr. 

Joseph Smith, George Dennis, *' Jonathan Huntington, 

Nathaniel Backus, William Coit, Caleb Whitney, 

Eleazar Waterman, Ebenezer Fitch, Peter Lanman. 

Jabez Dean, Joseph Trumbull, 

Mr. Whitaker wa"? a man of fine talents and prepossessing appearance. 
He had manifested great interest in the prosperity of Mr. Wheelock's 
Indian school at Lebanon, and in the welfare of the Mohegan Indians, his 
neighbors. On these accounts he had been selected as a proper person to 
accompany Mr. Occora on his mission. 

They carried with them a printed book containing recommendations, 
and an exposition of the state of Indian Missions in North America. Mr. 
Whitaker's recommendation from his church is as follows : 

The Church of Christ at Chelsey, in Norwich, in Conn : in New England, to all the 
Churches of Christ, and whomsoever it may concern, send greeting : 
Whereas it has pleased God in his Providence, to call our Reverend and worthy 
Pastor, Mr. Nathaniel Whitaker, from us for a sea?on, to go to Europe, to solicit char- 
ities for the Indian Charity School, under the care of the Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Wheelock, 

* The six aggrieved members were Nathaniel Backus, Sen. and Jun., Epiu-aim Bill, 
Prosper Wetmore, Peter Lanman, and William Coit. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 465 

of Lebanon, and to promote Christian knowledge among the Indians on this conti- 
nent : 

We do unanimously recommend him, the said Mr. Whitaker and his services, to all 
the churches and people of God, of whatever denomination, and wheresoever he may 
come, as a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, whose praise is in the gospel through the 
churches ; earnestly requesting bi'othcrly kindness and charity may be extended towards 
him as occasion may require ; and that the grand and important cause in which he is 
engaged, may be forwarded and promoted by all the lovers of truth. 

Wishing grace, mercy and truth may be multiplied to you and the whole Israel of 
God, and desiring an interest in your prayers, we subscribe 
Yours in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, 

By order and in behalf ) Jonathan Huntington. 

said Church. ) IsAiAH Tiffany. 

NoKWiCH, Oct. 21, 1766. 

The delegates were eminently successful in tlieir mission, both in Eng- 
land and Scotland, and collected funds amounting nearly to ten thousand 
pounds sterling.* 

Some disagreement arose between Mr. "Whitaker and his Indian asso- 
ciate before they left England, and the latter in his confidential correspond- 
ence threw out hints that were calculated to excite suspicions of Mr. 
Whitaker's integrity. This distrust was, undoubtedly, without cause, orig- 
inating probably in misapprehension, or disagreement of opinion. The 
most inflexible of Mr. Whitaker's opponents at Chelsea never questioned 
his integrity, and the majority of his congregation adhered to him with 
strong and unwavering trust. 

During Mr. Whitaker's absence, his pulpit appears to have been most 
of the time vacant. Mr. Wales was at one time paid £9 for preaching, 
and Mr. Thatcher £18. No other supplies are recorded. The mission 
to Europe occupied about a year and a half. Mr. Whitaker's salary was 



* A Bible presented to Occom, while in England, according to tradition, by the king, 
is in the possession of Mrs. G. B. Ripley of Norwich. 

The following letter, written by Occom from London to his daughters at home, is a 
curious example of Mohegan ingenuity : 

My dear Mary and Esther — 
Perhaps you may query whether I am well : I came from home well, was by the 
way well, got over well, am received ut London well, and am treated extremely well, — 
yea, I am caress'd too well. And do you pray that I may be well ; and that I may do 
well, and in Time return Home well. And I hope you arc wcllj and wisli you well, 
and as I tiiink you begun well, so keep on well, that you may end well, and then all 
will be well. 

And so Farewell. 



zy^y^T^v^^ /Pcoi^^j^^ . 



30 



466 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

re-commenced June 2, 1768, which was doubtless the day of his return to 
Norwich and resumption of his pastoral duties. A society meeting was 
held to determine if they would call a council of dismission, as agreed 
upon before his departure, and the majority decided in the negative. 
Very soon, however, the old grievances recurred, and at a society meet- 
ing Jan 3, 1769, it was put to vote — 

" Wliether ye society will agree with Rev. Nath'l Whitakcr D. D. and ye aggrieved 
members of the Society, in calling ye Council agreed upon Nov. 6, 1765, to convene 
at this 2)lace on ye 24th inst. 

" Resolved in ye affirmative." 

Before this council the church laid the charges brought by Mr. Whita- 
ker against the six aggrieved members, and the council, after considering 
all the matters of complaint and difficulty, advised dismission. This result 
Mr. Whitaker laid before the church and society respectively, and after 
enumerating the embarrassments that threatened his future usefulness, 
requested to be released from his pastoral office. Both assemblies were 
reluctant, and voted against his dismission, — the church unanimously, and 
the society 28 against 9. It was agreed, however, at Mr. Whitaker's 
request, that another council should be called, with the express under- 
standing that all parties would yield to its decision. This council also 
advised dismission, and accordingly the same day Mr. Whitaker was dis- 
missed, the church recording their unwilling consent in these terms : 

March 24, 1769. "Voted that the Chh. have always been and still are averse to a 
dismission of Rev. Dr. "Whitaker, as they do not see any sufficient reason for it, and 
earnestly desire his continuance and by no means desire to be understood to have the 
least hand in his removal,' yet they consent to the same and will submit to the result of 
Council." 

Mr. Whitaker was no common-place character. He had great quick- 
ness and force of mind. The ai'dor of his temperament and his ceaseless 
activity may sometimes have drawn him aside from his ministerial func- 
tions, or led him to take a position slightly antagonistic and controversial, 
but he had noble traits of character. His name is honorably connected 
with the foundation of Dartmouth College, and the degree of D. D. con- 
ferred upon him by the college in New Jersey shows that his ability and 
enterprise were appreciated by his cotemporaries. 

He was subsequently installed at Salem, Mass., and at Norridgewock, 
Me. ; being dismissed from the latter place in 1790, he went to Virginia, 
and there died.* 

* Mr. Whitaker brought with him to Norwich his wife, Sarah, and two young child- 
ren, James and Elizabeth. He had two daughters born in the place : Sarah, March 
21, 1761, and Mary, March 27, 1764. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 467 

Mr. Wliitaker's j^u^^licfitions amount to some eight or ten pamphlets, 
consisting of occasional sermons and tracts on passing events of a theo- 
logical type. Perhaps the eai-liest of these publications is 

" The Trial of the Spirits : 

A Sermon on 1 John iv. 1. Preached at Newent, in Norwich, March 17, 1762 ; and 
published at the Desire of those who heard it." (Printed in Providence : By William 
Goddard.) 

This was directed against the Neiv Lights, whose principles were then 
spreading in the churches, and particularly designed to counteract the 
teachings of those who "set up the Light within, and their own Spirits 
and Notions as the standard to which the Scripture must be brought." 

A void of two and a half years succeeded in the pastorate at Chelsea. 
Ml". Piuiderson Austin occupied the pulpit for nine months, but declined 
a settlement. Mr. Joseph Howe was spoken of as a desirable candidate, 
but his services were not procured. 

In May, 1771, Mr. Ephraim Judson of Woodbury, Conn., came among 
the people by invitation, and gave such general satisfaction that after a 
short experience of his ministry, he was called to the pastoral office by a 
vote entirely unanimous, and ordained Oct. 3d of that year. At this time 
the meeting-house was freshened and improved. The bell was removed, 
and erected upon the hill near the house of Mr. Lemuel Boswell. Ten 
new pews were built, and assigned as follows : 

No. 4. Hannah Wight and Joseph Kelley. 

5. Jacob De Witt and John M'Larran Breed. 

6. John and Peter Waterman. 
8. Benjamin and George Dennis. 

15. Caleb Whitney and Joshua Norman. 

16. Daniel Kelley and William Capron. 

17. Prosper Wetmore and Ebenezer Fitch. ,^ 
20. David and Samuel Roath. 

22. William Reed and Zephaniah Jennings. 
24. Joseph Wight and Lemuel Bos well. 

The society voted to purchase the house and lot of Ezekiel Story at 
£120 for a settlement for Mr. Judson. This house was on the hill near 
the burial-ground. Mr. Judson began to occupy it in 1773. It was 
secured to him as his personal property, in case he should remain five 
years with the society. 

Mr. Judson was a man of pleasing aspect and dignified demeanor, tall 
and stately. He seldom used notes, and though he reasoned well, and 
often threw out striking remarks, his sermons were usually in the style of 
comrhon conversation, elucidated Avith comments tliat sometimes fell below 
the level of an intelligent audience and the dignity of the pulpit. For 



468 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

instance, in a sermon upon the Brazen Serpent, he repeatedly called it the 
Brass Snake. His expressions were sometimes very quaint and whim- 
sical. Preaching at one time on the excuses made by the guests who 
were invited to the wedding feast, he observed that one had bought five 
yoke of oxen, and civilly entreated to be excused : but the one who had 
married a wife replied absolutely, he could not come. Hence learn, said 
the preacher, that one woman can pull harder than Jive yoke of oxen. Mr. 
Judson once preached in the first society, a sermon particularly addressed 
to young women, which, contrary to his usual custom, was written out and 
elaborately finished in the style of Hervey's Meditations. To make it 
more impressive, he introduced a fictitious character of the name of Olar- 
inda, expatiated upon her wit and beauty, and the number of her admir- 
ers, followed her to the ball-room, and other scenes of gaiety, and then 
laid her upon a death-bed with all the pathos of a romance.* 

But these reminiscences apply to Mr. Judson only as a young man, 
during the first years of a long ministry. Preachers are generally recalled 
to mind by those salient points of character and habit that strike the pop- 
ular observation. Mr. Judson is therefore transmitted to us in the cos- 
tume of his eccentricities. He was nevertheless esteemed in his day for 
liigher qualities, — faithful performance of ministerial duty, and sincere 
patriotism. His delivery, usually slow and monotonous, on subjects con- 
nected with the liberties of the nation, would rise almost to enthusiasm. 
He took an early and active part in the Revolutionary struggle, and when 
offered a chaplaincy in the army, accepted the appointment with alaci'ity. 
This event and the consequent action of the society are thus registered : 

Aug. 14, 1776. Rev. Ephraim Judson having been appointed Chaplain in Col. 
Ward's regiment in the Continental service, generously proposes to relinquish his sal- 
ary during his absence, and asks leave to go. 

Permission granted. 

But his health was not equal to the arduous duties that devolved upon 
him. He was absent several months, and then returned an invalid ; and 
though he continued two years longer with his people, he seems never to 
have recovered his former health. Some of his habits that have been 
attributed to indolence, may have been forced upon him by physical 
infirmity. He would occasionally deliver his sermons in a sitting posture. 
He adopted also the Scotch custom of a recess in the middle of the ser- 
mon, to be occupied by the choir in singing, and it is said that in warm 
weather he would give out a psalm of eight or ten stanzas, long meter, 
and withdraw to a high rock just in the rear of the church, to enjoy the 
refreshing river-breeze during its performance. 



* For these and tother occasional illustrations of former persons and scenes, the 
author is indebted to the tenacious memory and conversational amenity of Eev. Dr. 
Strong of the First Society. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 469 

111 October, 1778, lie asked a dismission from office, grounding his 
motion on these points: 

" Want of competent support, usefulness obstructed by infirm health, inability to 
study, negligence of the people in attending public worship, — some other minister may 
be more beneficial." 

The church and society appointed committees to converse with him and 
endeavor to smooth over these difficuUies. But he remained firm to his 
purpose, and they at length concurred with him in referring the matter to 
a council of the neighboring ministers. This council met Dec. 15, and 
after considering Mr. Judson's pleas, decided unanimously — 

" That there is an unavoidable necessity of Mr. Judson's removal, and [we] do 
accordingly dismiss him : — especially on account of his weak state of health, which 
will not admit of a sedentary life or close application to study ; together with an un- 
happy appearance of indift'ereucc to his administration. Yet we cannot but express 
our great satisfaction in finding the measure of mutual love and respect that subsists 
between Mr. Judson and his people. "We arc satisfied with Mr. Judson's ministerial 
character, hope for his better health and future usefulness in the ministry. And may 
it please God to raise up for this people another able and faithful minister." 

" We also find that the degree of exei-tion for Mr. Judson's support has been very 
considerable, considering the present public exigencies." 

Mr. Judson afterward preached for a short time at Canterbury, Conn., 
and was successively installed at Taunton and at Sheffield, Mass. He 
died at the latter place, Feb. 23, 1813, in his 76th year.* 

In 1781 a new bell was purchased, and a belfry built for its reception 
at the east end of the meeting-house. 

A vacancy in the pastorate, of eight years, followed the dismission of 
Mr. Judson, during which time the Sabbath service was but partially sus- 
tained. All public enterprises felt the paralyzing influence of the war, 
and stood in abeyance, waiting for better times. 

Among the temporary supplies of this period were Mr. Zebulon Ely 
and Mr. David Austin, both graduates of Yale, of the class of 1779, and 
then making their first experiments in the pulpit. Mr. Ely was afterward 
for forty years pastor of the Lebanon church, and Mr. Austin, after many 
vicissitudes of life and changes of opinion, became in 1815 pastor of the 
church in Bozrah. Various other names are found, of persons who sup- 
plied the pulpit during this long vacancy .f 



* Rev. Adonirara Judson, D. D., the celebrated missionary to the Burman Empire, 

was a nephew of IMr. Ephraim Judson. 

t Dec. 1782. Voted to pay the bill of Joseph Williams for boarding Messrs. Hide, 
Ellis, Cliase, and other preachers : also the bill of Mr. John M. Breed for boarding 
Mr. Mills while preaching. 

Sept. 7, 1786. Voted to pay the Committee for boarding the ministers since De- 
cember last. Minister's pay, 38s. per Sabbath. 



470 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

No single person was probably so serviceable in continuing the minis- 
trations at this period, as Mr. Nathaniel Niles, who was then a resident of 
Norwich, — a licensed preacher, but engaged likewise in other pursuits, and 
not desirous of a settlement. He had married the daughter of Elijah 
Lathrop, and remained in the town ten or twelve years, taking an active 
part in the patriotic movements of the day, and in all objects of public 
interest, and serving as representative to the General Assembly for the 
spring sessions of 1779, '80, and '81. He was moreover connected with 
his father-in-law in various manufacturing interests that were beneficial to 
the country. They had establishments for making chocolate, iron-wire, 
and cards. Mr. Niles was himself the inventor of a process for making 
iron-wire out of bar-iron, the machinery for which was here first put into 
operation. 

Notwithstanding his numerous engagements, he was commonly prepared 
on the Sunday with a well-studied though generally unwritten discoui'se, 
and willing to occupy any vacant pulpit, or to preach without a pulpit, in 
any school-house, hall, or private room, where his services Avere required. 
In Chelsea he officiated often during Mr. Judson's absence, and after his 
dismission, and for several years was the main reliance upon which the 
society fell back when other applications failed. He had the reputation 
of a metaphysical preacher, fond of doctrinal points, and shrewd in draw- 
ing lines of diff*erence. The natural bias of his mind seems to have led 
in that direction.* He was fearless, however, in denouncing popular sins, 
and earnest in calling upon all to repent. 

Two discourses delivered in this society, July 12, 1778, and afterwards 
written out and published at the request of the hearers, are doubtless fair 
specimens of the general tone of his preaching.f They are clear and 
forcible in statement, and fervid in appeal. 

In versatility of talent, Mr. Niles was one of the most remarkable men 
of his time. He had studied medicine, given some attention to law, and 
had taught a grammar school in New York, where Lindley Murray, after- 
ward an author of grammars, was his pupil. In theology he had been a 
student with Dr. Bellamy. His literary talents were above the common 
order, but in this line he is chiefly distinguished for a sapphic ode, called 
The American Hero. This poem first appeared in print in the Connecti- 
cut Gazette, Feb. 2, 1776, but dated Norwich, 1775. It had been circu- 

* It is related that when at College both he and his brotlicr Samuel were so con- 
spicuous for keenness and subtlety in argument, as to be familiarly distinguished by 
the titles of Botheration Primus and Botheration Secundus. Sprague's Am. Pulpit. 

t Printed by John Trumbull, 1779. The texts were Luke 8:18, and 6 : 46. This 
publication, and a sermon of Mr. Niles' entitled Tiie Remembrance of Christ, deliv- 
ered at Medway, Oct. 31, 1773, and printed in Boston, are omitted in Dr. Sprague's 
list of the publications of Mr. Niles, ia his American Pulpit. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 471 

lated and sung in private and patriotic meetings, before it was printed, the 
nausic being composed by one of" the author's friends.* 

After the conchasion of the war, and the death of liis first wife, Mr. 
Niles removed into a wild part of Vermont, which lie lived to see trans- 
formed into farms and villages, glowing with fertility and comfort. His 
ministerial vocation was carried with him through life, thougli lie was 
never settled as a pastor, or even ordained, and refused, according to 
report, seventeen calls. In the town where he settled, he was tlie first 
white inhabitant and the first preacher ; holding meetings in his house for 
twelve years before a church could be built. He was also much employed 
in civil affairs ; was for many years a Judge of the Supreme Court, and 
Member of Congress from 1791 to 1795. Not by the title of Reverend, 
but as Judge Niles, he was commonly known. He died at "West Fairlee, 
Vt., Oct. 31, 1828, aged 88. 

The society had now been eight years without a pastor, when Mr. 
Walter King, of Wilbraham, Mass., came among them to preach as a 
candidate. His efficient ministrations aroused the church to a sense of 
their declension, and revived the dying interests of religion. The record 
says: 

" The Church by reason of many distressing trials being scattered and reduced ex- 
ceeding low, determine to renew their covenant and reorganize." 

Jonathan Huntington, Ebenezer Fitch, and twelve sisters, were all that 
remained of the former members. To these were added Mr. King from 
the church in New Haven, and seven others by profession of faith, form- 
ing a church of twenty-two members, of whom seven were men, viz. : 

Jonathan Huntington, Elijah Lathrop, 

Ebenezer Fitch, l^ Grover L'Hommcdieu, 

Walter King, Jonathan Frisby. 
Peter Lanman, 

The vote of the society calling Mr. King to the pastorate, stood thirty- 
five against one. He was ordained May 24, 1787. Sermon by Rev. 
Charles Backus. Salary £125 per annum, with 40s. added yearly till it 
amount to £135 per annum, and at that point to remain fixed. 

On the division of the town in 178G, only two Congregational societies 
were left in Norwich proper, which made an alteration of title necessary. 
Mr. King was therefore ordained over the Second Church instead of the 
Sixth. 

No office seems to have been more irksome than that of collecting the 

* This is supposed to have been Col. Absalom Peters, of Lebanon, who was at that 
time a young man giving lessons to the choirs in Norwich as a singing-master. 



472 HISTORY OF NORWICH. ^ 

ministerial rates. In 1785, no less than nine persons were successively 
chosen to the office of collector, and each refused peremptorily to serve. 
An incumbent was at last procured by the offer of ten per cent, for col- 
lecting. In 1788, fifteen persons of the first distinction in the society 
agreed to take their chance by lot for the office, each engaging to serve if 
his name was drawn. 



Universalism. 

In the year 1779, a public debate on the subject of Universalism was 
held in the Congregational Church at Chelsea, between Mr. Niles and 
Mr. John Murray, which excited considerable interest at the time. 

The doctrine of universal salvation, connected with belief in the Trinity 
and a purification from sin by a limited degree of punishment in another 
state, ending in actual pardon and a final restoration to the favor of God, 
had at that period a eonsiderable number of advocates in Norwich, It was 
introduced into the town in the year 1772, by Mr, John Murray, the Eng- 
lish Universalist, or " Great Promulgator," as he was sometimes styled. 
He was first invited to preach in Norwich by Mr. Samuel Post, who, 
having been accidentally present when he delivered an address at Guil- 
ford, was charmed with his persuasive oratory. He preached first in the 
academic building at the foot of Bean Hill, and Mr. Gamaliel Reynolds, 
the principal exhorter among the Separatists, who held their meetings in 
that house, became his convert. To accommodate the throngs that came 
to hear him, the committee of the First Congregational Society permitted 
their meeting-house to be opened for his use, which Mr. Murray says was 
never afterward shut against him.* 

His first text in Norwich is said to have been the single word Shiloh — 
Genesis 49 : 10. But the sermon that excited the most discussion was 
founded upon the parable of the merchantman seeking goodly pearls. 
The merchant, he said, represented Christ, and the whole race of mankind 
were the pearls, whom Christ by the surrender of his life had purchased, 
and would keep eternally safe. 

After Mr. Murray's departure, the Rev. Dr. Lord, fearing, he said, that 

* The committee of this Society appear to have been almost indiscriminately libera 
in the loan of their church to itinerant preachers. Witness the following newspaper 
item of Nov. 14, 1793: 

" On Friday evening last, Mr. John Thayer, Catholic Missionary, delivered to a 
large audience at the Rev. Joseph Strong's meeting-house in this City, a learned and 
ingenious discourse in which he undertook to prove that the Catholick Church was the 
only true Church of Chi-ist. On Sunday evening following at the same place he de- 
livered a discourse on the propriety and true piety of invoking departed saints and the 
utility and efficacy of addressing prayers to them." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 473 

some of his congregation had accepted the mistaken exposition of the 
"itinerant sti*anger," took an opportunity to elucidate the same text. The 
merchant he regarded as the representative of man, seelving happiness, but 
ignorant of the chief good ; when he finds Christ, the pearl of great price, 
he gives n]> the world and all its blandishments, and takes the Saviour for 
his everlasting portion.* 

Mr. Murray subsequently made several annual visits to Norwich, and 
was allowed to preach in all the churches, but at the Landing he usually 
occupied the pulpit of the Episcopal church, and it was popularly reported 
that the Rev. Mr. Tyler coincided with him in the main point that sepa- 
rated him from orthodoxy, — to wit, the final restoration of all mankind to 
holiness and consequent happiness. Mr. Murray, however, never claimed 
him as a disciple, but in his notes ranks him with those who had acted 
toward him the part of Christian friends. 

Mr. Niles, who was then the acting minister of the Congregational 
society in Chelsea, was disposed to examine and discuss the points at issue 
with Mr. Murray. A public debate was therefore held by the two cham- 
})ions, but with what result does not appear. The sermon of Mr. Niles on 
the text, "Take heed therefore how ye hear," preached in July, 1778, and 
published by request of the congregation, was doubtless designed to guard 
his hearers against the alluring, heart-pleasing doctrine that had been pro- 
claimed among them. 

Mr. Murray was a man of wit and humor, fluent in speaking, with the 
manners of a gentleman. He built up no society in Norwich, but he left 
an abundance of seed sown, the produce of which might be traced thi'ough 
the Avhole of that generation.! Many of those, however, who were drawn 
aside for a time by his fascinations, and entangled as it were in his silken 
net, ultimately regained their former stand-point. He died at Boston, 
Sept. 3, 1815, aged 744 

In the old part of the town, the Separatist meetings gradually took the 
form of Universalism. They were held at first in the academy, but after- 
wards at the house of Mr. Ebenezer Grover. Mr. Reynolds, who acted 

* This discourse was delivered Sept. 27, 1772: printed by Green & Spooner, Nor- 
wicli, 1773. 

t A Univcrsalist Hymn-Book, published by subscription in 177G, has a list of nearly 
forty subscribers in Norwich. 

I Mr. Murray's wife, a very interesting woman, sometimes accompanied him in his 
visits to Norwich. Lodging at one time with a friend on Chelsea Plain, at breakfast 
the next morning the lady visitor was not to be found, and the husband could give no 
account of her. Soon afterward she came in, flushed with exercise, but with wet feet 
and dripping with dew. She had risen early, and with a child for a guide, had visited 
the Indian graves, copied inscriptions, explored the ravine to the falls, and wrought 
herself into a state of lively enthusiasm. Mrs. Murray was authoress of a serial work 
called the Gleaner, collected in 1798 and published in three volumes. 



474 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

as their minister without having received any regular ordination or ap- 
pointment to office, was a man of original strong sense, of powerful frame 
and imposing appearance, but untaught and .illiterate. Mr. Murray said 
of him, — " He is an honest soul, and we all love him, but he can not yet 
speak the language of heaven." 

At a later period Mr. Elhanan Winchester, who was born in the vicinity 
of Norwich and had many warm personal friends in the place, often came 
hither in his preaching tours, and was allowed the free use of the pulpits, 
Congregational and Episcopal. The persuasive eloquence of Mr. Win- 
chester, his unblemished life, and the affectionate simplicity of his man- 
ners, all operated in his favor. His knowledge of the Scriptures was so 
minute, and his memory so retentive and amenable to his will, that his 
friends were accustomed to say if the Bible were to be struck out of exist- 
ence, Mr. Winchester could replace it from memory. 

The last time that he preached in Norwich was in the pulpit of the 
First Society, Sept. 18, 1794. He died at Hartford in 1797. 

Winchester's Lectures on the Prophecies, embodying and explaining 
the principles he had disseminated in his sermons, were published at Nor- 
wich in 1794 and '95. The first two lectures wei'e printed by Trumbull, 
the remainder by Thomas Hubbard. 

Another work of a kindred bias in doctrine was printed at Norwich in 
1796. This was "Calvinism Improved," by Rev. Joseph Huntington, 
D. D., a native of Norwich, and minister of Coventry, Ct. The work 
was not published until after the author's decease, but had then an exten- 
sive circulation. 

Still another work in the same direction, explanatory and defensive of 
the doctrine of Universal Salvation, was published at Norwich in the year 
1815. It was entitled, "The Law and the Gospel clearly demonstrated in 
Six Sermons." This work was popularly attributed to the Rev. Mr. 
Tyler, but not acknowledged by him. 

These early developments of Universalism were of the Trinitarian 
school, and while agreeing with the current orthodoxy in various articles 
of belief, diverged from it on one important point. They represented the 
two doctrines of redemption and salvation as co-extensive and equally uni- 
versal. The question at issue was, How far the efficacy of divine grace 
extended? Were there any limits to it? Here was the gulf that sepa- 
rated them. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

The West India Trade. 

The Proclamation of Congress announcing a cessation of hostilities be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States, was published April 11, 1783. 

Christopher Leffingwell was the first naval officer of the port of Nor- 
wich, under the United States government. He was appointed in 1784. 
Thomas Coit, collector of the revenue. 

The commerce of Norwich shared in the general impulse that the 
peace gave to maritime pursuits. Her merchants and ship-masters hav- 
ing suffered less by the war than those of more exposed ports, were better 
prepared for action, and launched at once into the tide of adventure. Yet 
in reviewing the marine incidents connected with the place, it is not easy 
to keep the current distinct from the interests and ownerships of other 
towns that had the same port of entry, and in some instances vessels of 
similar capacity bearing the same names. 

Moreover, Norwich and New London were actually connected in 
various mercantile partnerships. The cargo of an incoming vessel was 
often distributed among the merchants of both places, and masters belong- 
ing to one port frequently shipped in vessels fitted out from the other. 
Neither the marine records nor the current newspapers were careful in 
their discriminations, and it is sometimes very difficult to assign items of 
intelligence to their right place. 

"While gathering up the memorials that relate to Norwich, and giving 
due honor to her merchants and seamen for their enterprise, we do not 
design to claim that they engrossed more than an honorable share of the 
industry and activity of the times.* 

The West India trade was an alluring path of adventure. The horses, 
cattle and alimentary produce of a thriving back country converged at 
Norwich and sought a market abroad. For the first ten or twelve years 
after the peace, it met with but few obstacles except those arising from 
tropical storms or tropical diseases. It was prosecuted with vigor, and 
was rich in its returns. 

* The commercial details of this and the following chapter have been gathered from 
the custom house records at New London, newspajjer files, and other contemporary 
documents. 



476 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 



Most of the voyages of that day were undertaken in vessels of very 
light burden and small draft. A large proportion of the trade of New 
England was accomplished in sloops, schooners and brigs, from 35 to 70 
or 100 tons burden. Ships, — that is, merchant vessels, ship-rigged, with 
three masts, — were generally from 100 to 200 tons burden, scarce equal- 
ing an ordinary brig of the present day.* 

Live-stock, provisions and lumber were the articles demanded for the 
West India market. Even flour was then an article of export rather than 
of import. Considerable wheat was raised in the eastern part of Con- 
necticut, where it is now a very uncertain crop, and less profitable than 
other grains. 

The Norwich vessels seldom took in their live-stock from the wharves. 
Sheep and swine might however be received directly from the land, or 
from light craft as they lay in the stream; but horses, oxen and cows 
were driven to New London, and there taken on board. It was rare for 
a vessel to cany her deck cargo down the river. 

The following table of the exports and imports of Norwich, from Jan. 
1, 1788, to March 4, 1789, is taken from the report of the naval officer: 





ES 


£ 


rs. 

s. 


d. 


£ 


s. 


d. 


549 horses, valuo, 


12 


GO 


00 


6588 


00 


00 


205 mules, " 


15 






3075 






205 horaed cattle, " 


7 






1435 






321 


sheep, " 




10 




160 


10 




566 


hogs, 




15 




424 


10 




1,903 


bbls. beef, 




40 




3806 






1,774 


" pork. 




60 




5322 






25,000 lbs. butter, " 






6 


625 






92,120 


" cheese, " 






4 


1535 


6 


8 


6,600 


" ham, " 






5 


137 


10 




16,000 


bu. grain, " 




2 


6 


2000 






175 


M. hoops. 




70 




612 


10 




160 


M. staves, " 




80 




640 






14,600 


lbs. hayseed, " 






6 


365 






586 


bbls. potash, " 




5 




2880 






25,000 


yds. homemade cloth, 




2 




2500 






631 


hlids. flaxseed. 




40 




1264 






276 
4 


tons pressed hay, 
bbls. gingerbread. 

Total, 


5 


60 




828 
20 








£34,218 


6 


8 



* Six prominent trading vessels, in 1791, owned principally by Joseph Williams, 
and kept in the West India trade, were of the following tonnage : 

Ship Josephus, 228 tons. Schooner Nabby, 87 tons. 

Brig Enterpriser, 130 tons. Sloop Prosperity, 70 tons. 

Snow Federal, 110 tons. Sloop Negotiator, 70 tons. 

The Snow was thus described : " This vessel is all Federal ; hull, rigging, sails, and 
every material manufactured from the produce o6 America." 



HISTORY OF 


NORWICH. 






IMPORTS. 
















£ 


s. 


d. 


European goods, valne 


- 




- 3909 






1,500 hides, " 12s. 


- 


- 


900 






7,675 bu. salt, Is. 8d. 


- 




639 


11 


8 


112,625 galls, molasses. Is. Ad. 


- 


- 


7540 






18,300 " rum, 2s. Gd. 


- 




- 2287 


10 




1,271 lbs. bohea tea, 2s. 


- 


- 


127 


2 




20,700 " coffee, Is. - 


- 




- 1045 






417,200 " sugar. 






8344 






Total, 


£24,793 


3 


8 



477 



Shipping belonging to tlie port at this time : 

Twenty sloops, - - - - • 940 tons. 

Pive schooners, . - . - . 325 " 

Five brigs, .... - 545 " 

One ship, 200 " 

Total, - - - - 2010 " 



No custom-house records of the New London district, prior to the 
Revohition, are known to be extant. They were either carried away by 
Duncan Stewart, the last royal collector, in 177G, or more probably de- 
stroyed in the conflagration of the town in 1781. The first U. S. Col- 
lector under the Federal Constitution, appointed by General Washington, 
was 

General Jedidiah Huntington. 

The coast of Connecticut formed two districts, those of New Haven 
and New London. The New London district extended from Killingworth 
to Rhode Island, and included the commerce of the two rivers, Connecti- 
cut and Thames. General Huntington immediately relinquished his mer- 
cantile concerns in Norwich, and removed to New London, taking posses- 
sion of his office, as the record states with characteristic accm-acy, "August 
11th, 1789, 7 o'clock, A. M."* 

The appointments made for Norwich were : — Benajah LeffingweU, 
guager; Joseph Gale, measurer and weigher. 

The regular packets at that time running from Norwich to New York 
were the Juno, llobert Niles; the Venus, Christopher Vaill; and the 
Lady Washington, Stephen Culver. The Norwich Packet, Benjamin 
Culver, plied regularly to Newport, and the Swallow, Zephaniah Jen- 

* The first vessel entered at the new cnstom-house was the brig Sally, Capt. Moses 
Tryon, which arrived that morning from Capo Francois with a cargo of molasses. 
She was owned by Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford. 



4T8 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

nings, to Boston. Several other coasting sloops kept the river lively ; 
among them were the Lark, Jonathan Roath ; and the Royal Oak, Tim- 
othy Parker. 

The first clearances from Norwich for a foreign port, under the new 
collector, August, 1789, were : 

Sloop Sally, Frederick Tracy, for Martinico. 
Sell. Friendship, Absalom Pride, for St. Martins. 
Sch. Nabby, Joseph Pierce, for do. 

The earliest entries of note were : 

Aug. Brig Neptune, Hezekiah Perkins, from Hispaniola. 

" Enterprise, Jerahmeel Williams, with 690 tubs of salt. 

The ship Josephus, Elisha Huntington, cleared for Demerara, Sept. 12, 
1789. A memorandum of her lading will give a good idea of a West 
India cargo. Her live-stock consisted of 62 horses and mules, a few 
cows, a yoke of oxen, and a dozen sheep and swine. Of provisions she 
carried 4500 bunches of onions, 18 hhds. of potatoes, 86 boxes of cheese, 
18 firkins of butter, nearly 80 hhds. of beef and pork, 30 kegs of crack- 
ers, 34 bbls. of bread, and 30 bbls. of flour. She had a large amount of 
brick and lumber, planks, clapboards, staves, joints, and spars ; 115 water 
hogsheads ; a lot of pai-lor furniture, such as mahogany tables, green chairs 
and sofas, and a few saddles and bridles. 

We are struck with astonishment at the quantity of live-stock carried 
even by the smaller vessels, or sloops, popularly called horse-jockeys, in 
these voyages. That same season, the Betsey, Jabez Lord, took out 35 
horses, and the Nancy, John Fanning, 36. These were small sloops.* 

The brig Neptune, which cleared Oct. 1st for Hispaniola, carried 49 
horses. The Enterpriser, Isaac Williams, sailing for Demarara, Nov. 2d, 
besides provisions, brick, and lumber, cari-ied 20 horses, 17 cattle, 9 
mules, 20 sheep, 20 swine, 150 geese, and 100 tui-keys.f 

The return cargo consisted of rum, molasses, sugar, wine, pimento, 
peppei", limes, tamarinds, sweetmeats, aniseed, bags of coffee, bales of 
cotton, tobacco, indigo, and salt. 

The trade to the northern coast of South America, especially to Dutch 
Guiana, was lucrative, and the cargoes brought from thence paid a higher 
duty than others. As an example of the success and spirit with Avhich 

* Capt. Isaac Hull was for many years engaged in the West India trade, sailing from 
New London in the employ of Norwich and New London merchants. In one of his 
voyages in the ship Minerva, (1798,) he carried 98 oxen on his deck. 

t The Enterpriser on her return from this voyage was libeled by the government for 
importing goods not contained in her manifest, concealing and delivering them at Nor- 
wich without a permit, viz., 13 hhds. spirits, 10 bales cotton, 1 bbl. sugar, 1 cask cocoa. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 479 

this line of trade was pi'osecuted, and the risks run, take a horse-jockey 
sloop of 90 tons hurden, called the Prosperity, fittted out hy Joseph Wil- 
liams. 

We first notice her on a voyage to Essequiho, in March, 1790, with 38 
horses on her deck ; Jerahmeel Williams, master. From that time she 
continued the line for eight or nine years, avei'aging two voyages per year. 
At her entry in March, 1792, the duties on her cargo amounted to $2,446, 
and in October of the same year, to $2,747. In one of her trips, (1793,) 
she carried out 40 mules, 12 horses, 190 sheep, and 25 swine, besides the 
usual variety of other lading. In 1799, she was taken by one of the bel- 
ligerent cruisers, found to have contraband goods on board, condemned, 
and forfeited. 

The brig Enterpriser, Hezekiah Freeman, entering from Essequiho in 
April, 1793, with goods to Joseph WiUiams and other merchants, paid an 
import of $3,241 ; the highest of any single Norwich cargo before 1796. 

The ship-masters were generally part owners of vessel and cargo. A 
large proportion of the merchants had been sea-captains, and it was no 
uncommon thing for them to alternate between trading at home and trad- 
ing at sea, — leaving their business with a partner, and taking command of 
a vessel to the Islands or to Europe. The names of Backus, Coit, Fitch, 
Perkins, &c., were borne by pei'sons as familiar with the deck as the 
counter ; with the ports in tropical seas, as with the departments of busi- 
ness at home. In point of fact, it was necessary that the captain of a 
merchant vessel should not only be an able mariner, but practiced in 
trade ; for he generally carried no supercargo, and transacted all the busi- 
ness of the voyage himself. 

Ships owned and chartered from the New London district, during the 
year 1791 : 

9 shijis, 1 barque, 1 snow, 65 brigantines, 32 schooners, 57 sloops. 

Horses, cattle and mules exported, 7,403. 

During the year preceding, 7,072. 

What proportion of these were from Norwich, we have not the means 
of ascertaining. 

American commerce began to meet with its first serious obstructions in 
1793. Ten years of great prosperity had multiplied the merchant vessels 
till they literally swarmed in the usual routes of trade. From sixty to 
eighty American vessels were sometimes reported as lying at once in a 
single port in the West Indies ; Cape Francois, for instance. The richest 
part of St. Domingo belonged to the French, with the islands of Martin- 
ique and Guadaloupe, and the trade to these French colonies was im- 
mense. In 1793, nearly 1400 American vessels, with a tonnage of 160,- 
000 tons, were engaged in it. The stern edicts of France and England, 
the two belligerent powers, fell upon this trade with crushing weight* 



480 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

American vessels were seized, now by one party and now by the other, 
carried into port, and there libeled and condemned, the government and 
the captors sharing the spoils. By far the greater part of these destruct- 
ive seizures were made by the British ; they obtained possession of Mar- 
tinique and Guadaloupe, and preyed upon American commerce without 
restraint, condemning every vessel from a French port that carried sugar, 
cotton, or coffee.* 

Capt. John Fanning, of the bi'ig Union, arrived from the West Indies 
July 10, 1793. He reported that 200 sail of American vessels had en- 
tered the harbor of Cape Fran9ois between the 19th and 23d of June. 
While Capt. Fanning was there, a terrific battle was fought between the 
races : whites, mulattoes and negroes struggling for the mastery. The 
town was plundered and burnt, and it was said that 5000 persons were 
massacred. Many took refuge in the mountains, and others on board the 
ships in the harbor. At this period great numbers of refugees from St. 
Domingo came to the States, seeking an asylum. Norwich had her share 
of these unfortunate exiles. 

In May, 1794, Congress laid an embargo of thirty days duration. A 
war with Great Britain was seriously apprehended, and a general spirit 
of arming in defence of the country prevailed. Pubhc meetings were 
held in all the larger towns and thriving sea-ports of the Union, and patri- 
otic resolutions carried by acclamation. At New London the public meet- 
ing was held March 19 th. In Norwich the merchants convened on the 
18th of April at the house of Elijah Lathrop: Ebenezer Huntington in the 
chair ; Thomas Fanning, clerk ; and drafted a memorial to Congress, com- 
plaining of British depredations, and urging immediate retaliatory action. 
This memorial was forwarded to the House of Representatives. 

But the storm at this time blew over. The difficulties with England 
were temporarily settled in November, by Jay's treaty, and American 
commerce resumed its flourishing course. It was still subject to many 
vexatious impositions, — to the plundering of French privateers and im- 
pressment by British men-of-war, — yet still it prospered. In the West 
India trade, the most hazardous undertakings were frequently crowned 
with splendid success. This encouraged entei'prise and kept the track 
lively with adventures for a second period of ten years. Never was any 
business more exciting. The gain was alluring, but the hazards were 
great. When a vessel left port often a shuddering fear of the deadly 
fever of the tropics must have swept through the minds of parting 
friends. 

It is wonderful that in a line of trade attended by such dangers there 

* Jan. 14, 1794. Capt. Meech, arrived from Cape Nichola Mole, in the schooner 
Polly, reports that all the West India Islands are in possession of the British, except 
Cape Francois and Aux Cayes. Norwich Weekly Register. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 481 

should have been no difficulty in obtaining seamen. Young men were 
eager for the chance ; a crew was always at hand ; the love of adventure 
was stronger than the fear of shipwreck and death, and one of the great 
parental trials of the day was that the boys of the family were persever- 
ingly bent on going to sea. If a vessel was deficient in her crew, it was 
only necessary to hang out a signal to that effect from mast-head, and 
applicants would soon appear to fill the vacancies. 

Two successful voyages in a year appears to have been the climax of 
good fortune in the West India trade. A few instances have been noticed 
of three entrances or three clearances during the year, but none of three 
whole voyages with full cargoes in and out. In 1791, the schooner Chloe, 
Jabez Lord, entered 7 March, 15 June, and 3 Oct. In 1793, the brig 
Union, John Fanning, entered 11 March, 11 July, and 7 Dec. The brig 
Minerva accomplished fourteen voyages in a little more than five years, 
from Feb., 1801, to the spring of 1806: four under Capt. John French, 
the last seven under Capt. Sangar. 

The sloop Negociator, James Munsell, sailed with a cargo for the "West 
Indies, June 10, 1798, and returned into port July oOth, having completed 
her voyage in fifty days. This was noticed at the time as an example of 
a voyage remarkably short and prosperous. The voyage to or from the 
islands usually occupied from twelve to thirty days; to or from Demerara, 
from twenty to forty. The sloop Swallow in 1788 was fifty days on her 
passage from New London to Demerara, having met with opposing winds 
and heavy storms. 

In 1795, a list of vessels and tonnage belonging to the place was made 
out in order to favor a petition forwarded to government for the establish- 
ment of a post-office in Chelsea. The following is a copy of this list, 
taken from a draft in the hand-writing of Joseph Howland, Esq., than 
whom no man was better acquainted with the mai'itime affiiirs of the 
place. 

"List of Shipping belonging to the port of Norwich, October 12, 1795. 



Ship Mercury, 


280 


tons. 


Brig i Sally, 


60 tons, 


" Columbus, 


200 


" 


" Betsey, 


90 " 


" Modesty, 


240 


" 


Schooner Polly, 


90 " 


" Young Eagle, 


200 


« 


Allen, 


85 " 


" George, 


364 


" 


" Elizabeth, 


75 " 


" Portland, 


220 


" 


" Chloe, 


75 " 


" Charlotte, 


90 


" 


" Washington 65 " 


Brig Union, 


130 


" 


Schr. Shetuckct, 


70 " 


" Endeavor, 


120 


(C 


Robinson Crusoe, 


120 " 


" Friendship, 


120 


" 


Schooner Beaver, 


60 " 


" Betsey, 


130 


« 


" Jenny, 


70 " 


" Charlcstown, 


60 


" 


Sloop Farmer, 


85 " 


" Polly, 


180 


" 


" Crisis, 


72 " 


" Sally. 


180 


" 


" Honor, 


65 " 


31 











482 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Sloop "Willicim, 70 tons. Sloop Mary, 45 tons. 

" Prosperity, 90 " " Hercules, 70 " 

" Polly, 80 " " Juno, 55 " 

" Negotiater, 90 " " Hunter, 45 " 

" Friendship, 90 " " Patty, 35 " 

" Bud, 35 " " Nancy, 70 * " 

" I Betsey, 45 " " • , 65 " 

Total seven ships, nine brigs, nine schooners, seventeen sloops = forty- two. Total 
4312 tons, of which only 210 tons is owned in the old Parish, and 4102 is owned in the 
port or what is called Chelsea. The above does not include a number of river packets, 
or four New York packets." 

"When this list was made out, the shipping interest of the port had not 
reached its maximum of prosperity. Though it had suffered from the 
annoyances of foreign powers, it was in a condition to bear losses without 
being crippled in its pursuits. For several years after 1795, the importa- 
tions increased in value, and larger vessels were employed. Heavy car- 
goes were brought in from Jeremie, Cape Francois, and Martinique. 

In four successive voyages of the ship Hope, in 1797 and '98, two in 
each year, three with Elijah Clark, master, and one with Sylvester Bill, 
bringing rum, molasses, &c., to Howland & Bill, J. Perkins, and B. 
Coit, the duties were from $7,000 to nearly $9,000 each. The cargoes 
of the ship Sally, at this period, were still more valuable, three in succes- 
sion paying an impost of more than $9,000 each. 

Probably the highest duty ever paid by Norwich merchants on a single 
cargo was in October, 1798, when the ship Sally, John L. Boswell, enter- 
ing from St. Domingo, was charged at the custom-house $12,121. 

After 1800 the trade of the port was less flourishing, yet from twenty 
to thirty brigs, schooners and coasting sloops or packets were generally 
kept in active service, and "West India cargoes continued to arrive. The 
three-masted schooner Urania, the brigs Antelope, Atalanta, Dove, Hope, 
and Harriet, made a series of voyages, with varying success, under John 
and Thomas Backus, Christopher Colver, George Gilbert, Oliver Fitch, 
Francis Smith, &c., with goods to Jesse Brown & Son, Peter Lanman, 
Jabez Perkins, Jabez Huntington, Dwight Eipley, Thomas Lathrop, and 
others. 

The hostile decrees of England and France, though directed mainly 
against each other, struck heavily upon neutral commerce. From 1803, 
onward for several years, English ships of war were so numerous in the 
West Indies that it was scarcely possible for a merchant vessel to enter a 
port (windward or leeward) without being overhauled. Moreover, French 
privateers were active ; from sixty to seventy American vessels were taken 
by them and carried into Cuba during the year 1804. They were lurking 
in retired places, or traversing the more open seas, and it was equally haz- 
ardous to seek a market at an island belonging to either of the belligerent 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 483 

powers, or at the Dutcli and ^Spanisll ports on the main. It was a com> 
mon remark that American commerce was made the prey of all nations. 

The risks were often accepted. The merchants, rather than have their 
vessels idle at the wharves, chose the hazardous alternative of keeping 
them afloat, and continued to send out their ventures. Advertisements 
like the following were however becoming rare : 

" The beautiful staunch ship Thames, Jonathan Lester, will take a freight of thirty 
horses, cattle or mules, and 400 barrels inboard. Apply to S. Woodbridgc or M. Ben- 
jamin. " Oct. 7, 1806. 

Dr. Dwight, in his travels, written in the early part of the century, 
says of Norwich : 

'' Within the last twenty years the trade has sutyered severely from several causes ; 
particularly from fires and French depredations. From the latter source no towu 
within my knowledge has experienced greater losses, in proportion to its trading cap- 
ital. Its commerce, however, is still considerable." 

In 1808 the embargo was in force, but during the months of May, June 
and July, hj special permission^ vessels v,'cre allowed to depart. Seven 
brigs and two schooners, belonging to Norwich, took advantage of this 
license, and cleared, all for Martinico. 

The trade of Norwich from this period rapidly declined. The mer- 
cantile interest ceased to be productive; many were impoverished by 
their risks ; the most sanguine were discouraged, and failures were fre- 
quent. The following is a sample of an issue less disastrous than that of 
many of the voyages undertaken at that time. 

Arrived in New York, May, 1810, the brig Sally, Bingley, of Norwich, 
27 days from Antigua. She had been taken by the French, retaken by 
the English, carried into Antigua, paid one-eighth for salvage and costs, 
and was then allowed to return home. 

In 1811, cargoes of considerable value were brought into Norwich from 
Cayenne, Demerara, St. Michael, and St. Bartholomew ; in all there were 
eight or ten arrivals that year, but in 1812 only three entries arc found. 

26 Feb. arr. sip. Windham, John Doane, from St. Bartiiolomew with goods to D. 
Ripley, J. H. Strong, T. M. and Joseph Huntington. 

19 June, arr. sch. Harriet, Alexander Allyn ; goods to D. Lathrop, C. Eells, and 
Lyman Brewer. 

25 June, arr. brig Park, Joseph Bingley, from Angustura; goods to D. Ripley, Au- 
gustus Perkins, &c. 

---'' These were the last arrivals before the war, and with these the palmy 
days of the West India trade terminate. 

During the six or eight years that preceded the war of 1812, more than 
a thousand merchant vessels had been captured and carried into British 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

ports for adjudication, and either wholly confiscated or compelled to puf 
large sums for salvage or redemption. 

But the greatest indignity offered to Americans was the practice of 
impressment and search which the British claimed and maintained as a 
right. Many a fine American sailor was clutched and forced into invol*- 
untary service on board of a British war vessel in this way. Two instan- 
ces in which the Norwich marine was compelled to yield a victim to these 
arrogant demands will be briefly noticed. 

In 1797, Avery Tinker of Norwich was impressed from on board the 
merchant ship Etope. At a foreign port he contrived to escape, and ulti- 
mately obtained refuge in an American vessel, but on the passage home 
tvas accidentally knocked overboard and drowned. 

In 1798, Charles, son of Stephen Barker of Norwich, enlisted in the 
armed schooner Galiot, ryhich sailed from New York for some foreign 
port under Capt. Hudson. On the voyage the schooner was upset in a 
squall, and the people taken from the wreck by a New York brig bound 
to Cadiz. They found that port blockaded by an English squadron, the 
commander of which overhauled the American brig, and impressed the 
whole of the crew that had been shipwrecked, except Capt. Hudson, 
transferring them to the Edgar, 74. 

Several of these seamen were probably never heard from by their rel^ 
atives. Three years afterward the father of young Barker received a 
letter from him dated on board the Edgar in the Baltic Sea, June 8, 1801, 
This was shortly after the terrific battle of Copenhagen, of which the 
writer gave some details, but the burden of his epistle was, that the doc* 
uments necessary to pi'ocure his release should be sent to him, that he 
might return to his country and his friends. The papers were forwarded, 
and repeated applications afterward made in his behalf, but in vain. 



The names of vessels are very suggestive. Some of those that we fin(3 
on the Norwich roll sound well, and are indicative of good taste. Such 
are, the Rising Sun, the Lady Washington, the Young Eagle, the Minervaj, 
the Ariel, the Lark, the Olive, and tlie Dove. Others less euphonious, — 
Chloe, Nabby, Patty, Peggy, Deborah, and the like,— were doubtless de- 
signed to commemorate familiar names in the families of the owners. 
The brig Little Joe, and the sloop Little Nat, refer to two young members 
of the Howland family. Tlie brig Josephns indicates that Joseph Wil- 
liams, a large ship-owner, was interested in its success. The brig Esse- 
quibo Packet, and the ship Stabroeck, point to the commercial intercourse 
with Dutch Guiana. Negotiator, Enterpriser, Regulator, give an impres- 
sion of stability in their owners. The ship "Three Friends" probably 
originated from the amicable relations of three owners, Coit, Lanman an«3 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 485 

Huntington. The ship Eleven Sons, of this period, owned in New Lon- 
don, and the schooner Nine Sisters, belonging to Connecticut river, were 
probably founded on fact, perpetuating rare instances of household rela- 
tion. 

The schooner Turn-of-tinies, built during the Revolutionary war, indi- 
cated the desire of the people for the return of peace ; but unfortunately 
it was captured before that blessed Turn-of-times came. One of the flour- 
ishing light sloops of New London was aptly named the Nimble-Ninepence. 
This also fell a prey to the enemy. 



Capt. Christopher Colver is now the oldest ship-master in Norwich, 
and the only one whose voyages reach back to the last century. Capt. 
Sylvester Bill, of nearly equal age, who commanded the armed ship Hope 
in 1797, died at New York in 1861, aged 91 years. 

Capt. Colver is a native of New London, but came to Norwich in 1790, 
and became master of a ship in 1802. After the war with Great Britain, 
he went into the European carrying trade, sailing principally from south- 
ern ports, and was constantly engaged for nearly thirty years. 

In the course of his voyages he has visited all the noted West India 
ports, and those on the northern coast of South America ; the Western 
and Madeira Islands ; Tangier, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Alicant, St. Ubes, Lis- 
bon, Havre, Bayonne, London, Liverpool ; several Irish ports, and Arch- 
angel in the Arctic ocean. He now enjoys a green old age, furnishing 
occasional marine reports for the newspapers, and occupying 'the same 
house in Franklin street which he pureluised in November, 1800. June 
Stli, 1865, he celebrated his 90th birthdaj. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

European and other Foreign Trade. 

It has been heretofore observed that the merchants before the war had 
made direct importations from England. Two or three times in a year, a 
vessel sent out from this western Thames would accomplish its mission 
and work its way back again with assorted goods and the freshest advices 
from London. It seems to have been a point of honor to maintain an 
open communication between these granite hill-sides and the old world. 

After the peace was well established, this trade was renewed, but with 
diminished enterprise. It never became of much note or importance ; yet 
a few notices respecting it having been collected, may be worth preserving 
as personal incidents connected with the history of the times. They will 
be introduced here as an episode from the rushing tide of traffic that after 
the Revolutionary war set with steady current toward the tropics. 

The small size of the vessels employed in the European trade, and the 
length of the voyages, contrasted with the majestic march over the deep 
of an ocean steamer at the present day, exhibits in strong relief the ad- 
vantage of steam in facilitating intercourse with Europe. 

Memoranda of European Voyages after the Peace of Versailles. 

The brig Hancock, Capt. Hezekiah Perkins, sailed for Amsterdam in 
April, 1783; left that port on her return, August 18, but meeting with a 
heavy gale, put back to Deal to repair damages, and came fr<5m thence in 
48 days, arriving at New London Nov. 4. 

In 1784, the brig Ranger, Capt. Robert McKown, made a voyage to 
London, where she arrived Sgpt. 24. Outward passage, 44 days ; return, 
GO. 

In November of that year, Howland & Coit sent to London "the strong- 
built double-deck brigantine Little Joe, Gurdon Bill, master," 

In 1785, Capt. Bill made two voyages to Europe in the Centurion, a 
ship of 1 GO tons, which was afterwards sent to Richmond, and there sold 
in April, 1786. 

Capt. Timothy Parker made several trips to Europe in the brig Katli- 
ei'lne. June ID, 1788, he arrived from the Isle of May ; July 22, cleai'ed 

• 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 487 

for Dublin with n cargo of pot and pearl aslies, timber, &c., and arrived 
again after eight weeks passage, Nov. 15. 

Voyages to Liverpool were also made before the year 1790, by Capt. 
Robert Niles and Capt. John Howland. In 1791, the sloop Success, I. 
Glover, went on a trading adventure to Copenhagen. 

A list of several successive voyages made by Captain Pride in the brigs 
Charlotte and Friendship, will serve as a fair sample of the nature and 
amount of the Irish trade at this period. 

Brig Charlotte, Absalom Pride, Jr. 

1791. Entered from Liverpool 3 Nov : duties on the cargo 464.04. 

1792. Cleared for Dublin 10 January, with flax-seed, pearl-ash, timber, trunnels, 3| 

tons sassafras, and 20 lbs. sarsaparilla. 
Entered, 5 July, with goods to Uriah Tracy, Simeon Thomas, &c. Duties 

1186.87. 
Cleared 1 1 Aug. for Dublin. 
Entered 17 Dec ; duties 577.74. 

1793. Cleared for Dublin 21 Jan. with 600 lbs. myrtle wax, 20 cords of wood, pot- 

ash, &c. 
Entered from Liverpool 18 July; duties 432.57. 

1794. Entered 10 Feb. after a passage home of 95 days. 

1795. 25 March cleared for Dublin, brig Friendshii), A. Pride Jr. with potash, planks, 

hides, staves, trunnels and horn-tips. 

These notices of lading show what articles found a market in Great 
Britain. One invoice had among its items 419 tierces of sumach. 

In 1796 a small ship was built in Norwich for the Irish trade, called 
the Ceres. vShe was commanded by Roswell Roath, and her first voyage 
was unusually prosperous, being absent only a week over three months, 
and bringing in a valuable cargo. But in her second or third voyage she 
was taken 23 days out by a French armed vessel, carried into a French 
port, and both vessel and cargo condemned. 

The Young Eagle was another small ship employed in this trade. She 
is first noticed as arriving at New London in November, 1793, from Os- 
tend, Elias Lord, master. She came in again under the same commander 
June 2, 1794, in 53 days from Liverpool, and continued for two or three 
years longer in this line of trade, Jedidiah Perkins, master. 

In 1798 the Irish trade was prosecuted by the brig Neptune, Perkins; 
sloop Endeavor, James Ilarlowe ; and schooner Eliza, B. Freeman. The 
Nc[)tune in a return voyage was boarded, July 17, by a French privateer 
of 1 G guns, called the Tiger, and plundered of several bales of dry-goods 
and crates of crockery. Letters were opened, and other enormities com- 
mitted. She arrived Sept. 2d, 71 days from Liverpool, with nothing left 
of her cargo but salt. 

In June, 1799, the schooner Victory, Harlowe, from Liverpool, con- 
signed to Thomas Mumford and Jabez Perkins, paid a duty of $2798.40: 



488 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

a very large amount, as the charges then ranged on European goods. 
The schooner Mary, Solomon Stewart, came from Liverpool the same 
season, with goods to Alpheus Dunham, Lathrop & Eells, Ebenezer and 
Erastus Huntington, and others. 

July 15, 1800, arrived ship Three Friends, Wm. Coit, Jr., 64 days 
from Liverpool, Avith goods to Jabez Huntington, Peter Lanman, and 
others. In April, 1801, arrived schooner Eliza, Benajah LefRngwell, in 
65 days from Liverpool. 

The brig Ceres, so called in remembrance of the lost ship of that name, 
was built at Norwich in 1804 for the L'ish trade, Roswell Roath, com- 
mander. Her first voyage was to Cork, from whence she arrived at New 
York with ten passengers, which was then considered a large company of 
emigrants, Jan. 25, 1805. She came a few days later to New London, 
and reported "a tedious passage of 100 days from Newry." 

Vessels going to Spain and Portugal carried chiefly provisions and sil- 
ver dollars ; bringing back wines, fruits, brandy, drugs, and silks. 

21 Feb. 1794, arrived sloop Honor, William Pollard, from Cadiz, with goods con- 
signed to Joseph Howland; duties 159.06. Left at Cadiz, sch. Patty, Ames, of Nor- 
wich. 

28 Oct. 1790, arrived brig Eecovery, John "Webb, from Lisbon with goods to Joseph 
Williams ; duties 500.07. 

11 March, 1796, entered from the Isle of May, Portugal, ship Mercury, Hezekiah 
Perkins J duties 851.40. 

These examples are sufficient to serve as illustrations of this trade. 
The brigs Neptune, Atalanta and Despatch were engaged in it. Captains 
"Whiting, Loring and Boswell were popular commanders. 

The experience of Norwich ship-masters was often employed in the 
service of other ports. Li 1801, we find Capt. Rockwell at Amsterdam 
in the ship Commerce, and Roswell Roath at London in the Juliana, New 
York vessels. Capt. Tracy commanded the ship Eugenia in voyages to 
Bordeaux. Other instances might be mentioned, and they became more 
numerous in later years. A New England ship-master, when business at 
home failed, was sure to find honorable employment either at New York 
or in some of the southern ports. Moreover the merchants of Norwich, 
New London, and other ports in Connecticut, were largely interested in 
New York shipping, and the imports made by them directly were often 
received via New York. 

In planning a commei'cial adventure, it was not uncommon to combine 
a fishing voyage with European trade. It saved the drain of silver to 
pay for imported goods. A license for fishing and a foreign passport were 
obtained, and the vessel cleared for the cod-fisheries and a market. Sev- 
eral Norwich schooners entered into this line of traffic, particularly be- 
tween 1802 and 1808. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 489 

The schooner Mechanic, Capt. Berry, arrived at New London March 
5, 1805, in 92 days from Barcelona, with a cargo of brandy to N. How- 
land and J. Brown ; duties $2198.14. Capt. Berry sailed the next month 
for " Green Island and Europe," in the brig Dolphin. 

The Norwich Courier, May 1, 1805, gives notice that a fleet of five 
brigs and schooners had dropped down the river, bound to the Straits of 
Bellisle on fishing adventures, and that four others were nearly ready to 
follow. These were the brigs Hiram, Austin ; Iris, Chr. Stanton ; Dol- 
phin, Berry ; and the schooners Betsey, Loring ; Amelia, Fitch ; Thetis, 
Hall ; Chelsea, Doane ; Jane, Berry ; and the Mechanic. These nine 
vessels were afterward reported safe at Green Island, and a part of them 
visited the Mediterranean before returning home. 

In 1806, the schooner Jane, Berry, from the Straits of Belleisle, bound 
up the Mediterranean, was taken by the English, on pretence of her 
attempting to go into Cadiz, and sent into Gibraltar, where she was 
cleared and proceeded on her voyage ; arrived late in the season at Bos- 
ton, GO days from Alicant. 

The ship Walter, Lord, was also taken by the British and ordered into 
Gibraltar, but was retaken by the captain, and went into Cadiz, from 
whence she returned to New York in safety. 

June 6, 1806, arrived brig Dolphin, Farewell Coit, 60 days from Alge- 
siras, with goods to Jesse Brown, Jr., Levi Huntington, and E. Coit & Co., 
paying a duty of $6454.10, which Ave believe to be the highest duty 
assessed on any one consignment from Europe to Norwich merchants. 

The Dolphin cleared in May, 1807, Saxton Berry, master, for Green 
Island and Europe, with license to trade, and came from Alicant in De- 
cember with goods to Jesse Brown & Son. 

But this peculiar line of business soon declined. Other ports Avere 
more favorably situated for engaging in the fisheries, and the New Eng- 
land vessels were all more or less annoyed by British comj)etitors, and 
sometimes driven from the ground. 

The commercial interests of Norwich, in their long progress, have been 
impeded by so many sources of discouragement, that their continued pur- 
suit displays a more than ordinary spirit of enterprise in the community. 
Unsuccessful investments of talent and capital seem only to lead the way 
to greater exertions and a more active perseverance. 

In 1799, a company was formed for prosecuting the sealing and whaling 
business. They fitted out the ship Susannah, and gave the command to 
Capt. James Munsell, an enterprising young navigator, who had made 
several prosperous West India voyages. The Susannah sailed from New 
London Oct. 15, going out under convoy of the U. S. ship Connecticut. 
She spent the next summer in sealing upon the coast of Patagonia, but 
being at last driven out to sea by heavy gales, she went into the river 



490 HISTORY OF NORWICH 

La Plata, and from thence to Rio Janeiro, where Capt. Munsell died of 
the small pox. The ship was subsequently wrecked on the coast of Bra- 
zil, and vessel and cargo totally lost. Charles Fitch, the supercargo, and 
most of the crew returned home in safety. 

The schooner Oneco, fitted out by the same company, sailed only a 
week later than the Susannah. She wintered at the Falkland Islands ; 
took 5000 skins on the coast of Patagonia, ran up the border of Chili to 
Valparaiso for supplies, and was there seized and confiscated by the 
Spanish authorities. 

The same company purchased the ship Miantonomo, and fitted her for 
whaling. She sailed 5th September, 1800, under Valentine Swain, Jr., 
clearing for Canton, with the design of whaling upon the north-west coast 
of North America, and circumnavigating the globe on the voyage home. 
She was at St. Mary's, Pacific ocean, in April, 1801, but afterward on the 
coast of Chili became involved in difficulties with the Spanish authorities, 
from which she was never extricated. The Mars, sent out by the same 
company, and commanded by another Captain Swain, met with a similar 
fate. 

These vessels, all nearly new, well fitted, and with officers and crews 
carefully selected, after clearing at the custom-house, never again appear 
in our records. Most of the seamen returned, Avorking from one point to 
another in various ways, but enduring many hardships before they reached 
home. 

In 1798, an attempt was made to establish a direct intercourse with the 
East Indies. The ship Pacific, Solomon Ingraham, was sent out for the 
purpose of purchasing goods at Calcutta. She cleared at New London, 
May 14, "for Madeira and a market," and merely touching at Madeira, 
arrived at Calcutta in 200 days. She took out no cargo. 

The East India trade was then arranged on a different basis from what 
it is at present. The homewai'd cargo, consisting chiefly of cotton goods, 
was paid for in current money. Spanish dollars were therefore carried 
out as the medium of exchange. Since that period, bales of cotton and 
bills on London have been used, and the goods imported are saltpetre, 
indigo, various gums and dyes, &c. Capt. Ingraham sailed from Calcutta 
on the homeward voyage, March 14, 1799. A few days out, even before 
leaving Bengal Bay, he was taken by a French privateer, a prize crew 
sent on board, and the vessel ordered to the Isle of France. Just before 
reaching that island, a British man-of-mar discovered her, and pursued so 
closely that the French commander ran the craft ashore, and escaped with 
his crew. The British took the cargo for their prey, and burnt the 
vessel. 

Capt. Ingraham and John Hamilton, supei'cargo of the Pacific, with 
several other Americans that had been taken and carried to Mauritius, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 491 

left the island in a cartel for Boston to be exchangecl. The A'essel on 
Hearing the coast encountered a violent gale, and was wrecked upon Cape 
Cod. Happily no lives were lost, and Capt. Ingraham arrived in Nor- 
wich Dec. 24, 1799. We find him in 1800 advertising Chinese and India 
goods, — ]Madras long cloths, Pekin and sinchew silks, bandannas, santa- 
fours, and Nansouk muslins, — received by the Nancy, another East India 
ship, in which h3 had an interest. 

Capt. Ingraham afterwards made two or more voyages to the East in 
the ship Virginia, sailing from New York. He died at Madras, Aug. 15, 
1805, in the 40tli year of his age. 

Two of the sons of Thomas Hubbard, proprietor of the Norwich 
Courier, were for a considerable period residents in the East Indies. 
Thomas, the oldest, went to Calcutta in the early part of the century, and 
obtained a situation as printer, in connection with Dr. Hunter, who was 
the government printer and director of the Hindostanee press in that city. 
After his return home, he went into the commission business at Richmond, 
Va., of the firm of Hubbard & Lyman, but continued his coi'respondence 
with the East, and made in all four voyages to Calcutta and two to Batavia. 
He died at the latter place in 1817, in the 35th year of his age. 

Amos H.* Hubbard, at a very early age, followed his brother to Cal- 
cutta, and arriving there just as the latter left for home, took the place 
vacated by him in the printing office Avith Dr. Hunter. When the island 
of Java was taken by the British in 1811, the government press was 
removed to Batavia, by order of Sir Thomas Stamford Eafiles, the Eng- 
lish Lieut. Governor. Mr. Hubbard went with it, and Dr. Hunter dying 
soon afterward, the jnanagement of the press devolved upon him. He 
continued in charge, and printed the "Java Government Gazette," till the 
island was restored to the Dutch, nearly five years. He returned to this 
country in 1817, in the ship America, which had been chartered in New 
York by his order and was furnished by him with its cargo. 

A limited amount of trade with European ports, Lisbon, Bilboa, Liver- 
pool, &c., was kept up until broken off by the second war with England. 
A few more items will be given as specimens. 

25 Feb. 1807 : arrived brig Maria, Moses Hillard, 60 days from Lisbon. 

May 9 : cleared for Nanlz, brig Traveller, Walter Lester; arrived, ou tbc return 
voyage, 29 October, 46 days from Bilboa. 

Ill 1809, tbc ship Stabrocck, Charles Rockwell, made a voyage to Cork and Liver- 
pool. 

In Jan. 1810, arrived from Liverpool, brig Fox, John Parker, with salt, coal, crates 
of crockery, &c., consigned to Roger Huntington and E. & E. Huntington ; duties, 

* Capt. Ingraham married in 1798, Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Perkins. His 
house in Norwich was on the Plain, next to that of Rev. Walter King. Ho left no 
children. His relict married Capt. John L. Boswcll, being his second wife. 



492 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

$342.73. The Tox cleared for Cadiz the next July, and returned in November, — 42 
days passage. 

The Chelsea, Chr. Colver, sailed for Alicant in January, 1810, Asa Fitch, passen- 
ger. On the return voyage, arrived 17 July, 106 days from Alicant, and 87 from Cen- 
ter, with goods consigned to Peter Lanman, Erastus Coit & Co., and others. The 
Chelsea sailed again in October, bound to Cadiz, under Farewell Coit, 

Aug. 3, 1811, arrived brig Dove, Colver, 63 days from Liverpool, passenger Roger 
Huntington. The same year Capt. Walter Lester made a voyage to Lisbon in the 
schooner Betsey, and in April, 1812, the Clielsea, Jonathan Lester, cleared at the cus- 
tom house for the same port, returning safely in Jnly. 

After Goddard & Williams entered into the flouring business at Nor- 
wich. Falls, their principal correspondence was with Richmond and other 
southern ports, but they sent one vessel to Europe, viz., the Ann & Mary, 
Robert N.Avery, which cleared at New London in November, 1812, with 
a cargo of flour. 

These were the last undertakings before the war. The direct transit to 
Europe ceased, and no Norwich vessel was again fitted out for that coast 
till 1833, when the ship Boston was sent to Bremen by Lester & Co. 

It has been already noticed that the vessels employed in this trade were 
of comparatively small capacity and measurement. But at that period the 
vessels of the larger ports, New York and Boston, were on the same lina- 
ited scale, insignificant in size and equipment, compared with the princely 
merchantmen of the present day. 

In the advertisements of the old traders, we often find notices of goods 
received direct from London, Bristol, Dublin, and Liverpool. Examples : 

Feb. 17, 1785. Thomas Fanning has just imported direct from London and now 
opened for sale at his store opposite his dwelling-house between the Town and Land- 
ing an assortment of European and India goods. 

1787. John Moore has Irish linens and chintzes just from Dublin for sale. 

1792, Woodbridge & Snow have for sale "teas direct from China; fresh Bohea, 
Hyson and Hyson-skin." 

1793. Joseph Howland has for sale "Manchester goods direct from the manufac- 
turers." 

1800. Jabez Huntington & Co. advertise "salt, nails, crockery, and hardware, 
direct from Liverpool by the ship Three Friends." 

1804. "Peter Lanman Jr. imports from England and keeps for sale, crown glass, 
liardware, &c," 



CHAPTER XXXm. 

Memoranda op Disasters. 

We have tluis far spoken of the trade of Norwich chiefly In respect to 
its amount and success. It may not be amiss to review the ground, and 
chronicle a few striking incidents tliat diversified the scene and gave it a 
dark side. 

In September, 1783, Capt. Azariah Hillard, who sailed from Norwich 
in August, encountered a hurricane at sea, by which his vessel was over-" 
set, and all on board perished except Joseph Pierce, the mate^ who clung 
to the wreck, and after a feai-ful experience^ was taken off and returned 
home in safety* 

In August, 1785, the sloop Lydia, Zachariah Bill, was wrecked in a 
gale near St. Martin's ; the vessel and cargo lost, and one man drowned. 
In the same gale, two other sloops belonging to Norwich, St. Mark, Capt. 
Rossiter, and the John, Capt. White, were driven out to sea, and suffered 
coii?;iderable damage. 

March 5, 1786, Capt. Henry Billings in the schooner Humbird was 
cast away at St. Eustatia ; vessel and most of the cargo lost. 

During the winter of 1787, the schooner Virgin, Alpheus Billings, out- 
Ivard bound, was cast away on the coast of Demarara ; vessel and cargo 
lost. 

In February, 1788, the brig Clarissa came in from Port-au-Prince} 
her master, William Loring, had died on the passage home, just as they 
came upon the coast. The vessel touched at Elizabeth Islands, and 
buried Capt. Loring at Tarpaulin Cove, "that very cold Tuesday," Feb- 
ruary 5 th. 

March 24th, Asa Waterman, homeward bound from Port-au-Prince in 
the brig Fanny, was wrecked in a fog upon Narragansett Beach. In 
November, the sloop Polly, C. Cook, was lost at Deer Island on the coast 
of Maine. The people and part of the lumber saved. 

August 22, 1788, the brig Narcissa arrived from the coast of Africa, 
Zachariah Bill late master. Four days from the African coast, Capt. Bill 
died, and Capt. Mortimer took command, returning home by Demarara 
and St. Eustatia. 



494 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

In 1789, disasters were numerous. The sloop Nancy, Elias Lord, lost 
her whole deck-load of stock in a gale. Capt. Hezekiah Perkins, in the 
brig Neptune, bound to Aux Cayes, lost his mainmast and thirty-six 
horses. In the same gale the ship Josephus, E. Huntington, lost main 
and mizzen mast and nearly fifty head of cattle. In December, advices 
were received that Capt. John Howland of the schooner Modesty (who 
sailed from New London the last of July) had died at sea, as also his 
mate, Robert Wattles , Thomas George, a seaman, and Mr. Joshua Pico, 
merchant of Norwich, who went out with Capt. Howland as a passenger, 
for his health. During the same season, the whole crew of the sloop 
Lively, of Norwich, with the exception of the master, Capt. Mortimer, 
died on the African coast, of the deadly malaria to which that region is 
subject. 

In January, 1790, the brig Friendship, John Pierce, bound to Aux 
Cayes, was wrecked on the Isle des Vaches, and totally lost. 

The sloop Negociator, Zebadiah Smith, sailed for Demarara, Dec. 7, 
1790, and in lat. 37° long. 74° was struck by a heavy sea, which swept 
the captain, who stood at the helm, overboard. The accident occurred at 
midnight, while a furious gale was I'aging, and nothing could be done by 
the crew to save their unfortunate commander. The voyage was com- 
pleted under Nathaniel Barker,* 

In March, 1794, the sloop Harmony, of Norwich, was met with at sea, 
not far from St. Domingo, drifting about, half full of water, with no one 
on board, her sails gone, and what rigging remained, useless. Apparently 
her whole crew had perished. 

In March, 1795, the brig Nancy, Capt. John "Webb, with a full cargo 
of rum and sugar from Jamaica, after touching at New London and taking 
in several passengers, sailed on the 12th for New York, and that same 
night was cast away on Eaton's Neck, and vessel and cargo lost. The 
passengers escaped with ditficulty ; among them were Dr. Benjamin But- 
ler, a large owner in the vessel and cargo, and his sister, Mrs. Denison. 

The ship Speculator, J. S. Billings, bound to the West Indies, met with 
a gale, eighteen days out, in which she broached to, overset, and had all 
her stock swept away. By cutting away the mizzen mast, she righted and 
became manageable, but having lost her voyage, she returned into port 
Nov. 11th. 

In 1796, many heavy losses were sustained, both from hostile elements 
and foreign belligerents. In March, Park Benjamin, in the brig Nancy, 
lost forty-five mules overboard in a gale of wind. Moses Benjamin, in 
the schooner Beaver, lost nineteen horses and two men. On his return 

* In September, 1792, Capt. Isaac B. Durkee, in tlie sloop Betsey, belonging to 
Samuel Woodln-idge, sailed for Enstatia, and before arriving there, discovered that two 
of his crew, whom he had shipped at Jfew Loudon, were females. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 495 

voyage, Capt. Park Benjamin, having a cargo valued at $50,000, was 
carried into Grenada, wliere he was obliged to pay largely to get cleared, 
and during the detention, lost his mate and all his people by putrid fever. 

The schooner Chloe, J. Lord, and the Crisis, Cyprian Cook, were over- 
hauled and plundered by the French ; the Lucy, Gilbert, carried into Gua- 
daloupe, and vessel and cargo condemned. 

Jan. 11, 1798, arrived schooner Fair Lady, Moses Benjamin, after a 
dreary passage of 83 days from Demarara. The schooner Sachem, Jer- 
emiah Harris, cleared at the custom-house in April, bound to the Mole, 
but before reaching her port, was stranded on the North Caicus and went 
to pieces. 

T\vo very striking disasters, in which not the suffering vessels, but those 
which came to the rescue, were from Norwich, may be allowed a place in 
our chronicle. 

April 6, 1795, the sloop Prosperity, Park Benjamin, arrived at New 
London, 25 days from Essequibo, bringing in also the sliip Polly, David 
Baldwin. The Polly was 90 days from Demarara. In March, during a 
furious gale, she lost rudder and sails, and was thrown on her beam ends, 
■which shifted her cargo and stove several hogsheads of rum. She was 
afterwai-ds driven off the coast seven times, till at last she was met and 
towed in by Capt. Benjamin. 

Li November, 1795, the ship Columbus, Capt. Lathrop, sailed for 
Charleston. On the passage she fell in Avith a schooner from Port Dau- 
phin, bound to Boston, with only one living man on board ; the others, 
five in number, had died of fever, a few days after leaving port. Capt. 
Lathrop put two of his men on board, and the vessel arrived safely at 
New London, where she discharged a valuable cargo. 

When the British obtained possession of the French Islands in 1794, 
those American vessels that chanced to be in the harbors were seized and 
many of them condemned and forfeited. The property of American mer- 
chants on the land was likewise in various instances confiscated. From 
the letter of a ship-master, dated at St. Pierre, March 2, 1794, to his fam- 
ily in Norwich, we give a short extract : 

"I have lost all my property by the surrender of St. Pierre to the Eii.iirlish. I have 
not only lost my vessel and cargo, but my weaiinj,^ apparel, bedding, books, quadrant, 
and all the money I had to the amount of 1700 dollars. Our friend and neighbor Capt. 
Fred. Tracy has shared the same fate." 

At this time the British commanders on the "West India station received 
orders to seize, detain, and bring to legal adjudication all vessels laden 
with the produce of French colonies or engaged in carrying supplies to 
said colonies. This decree and the coincident activity of French priva- 
teers made almost a clean sweep of the shipping then abroad. Congress 



496 HIS TORT OP NORWICH. 

at the same time laid an embargo upon vessels in port, and for a short 
space there was a lull in marine affairs. The West India trade, however, 
soon revived, and was pursued under great hazard and difficulty. Indig- 
nities were heaped upon American seamen, and often, when not wholly 
confiscated, the vessels were ransacked from stem to stern, and plundered 
of many valuable articles. Of the Norwich marine that suffered in this 
Way, we can only notice a few instances. 

Capt. Frederick Tracy, taken by the English and carried into Mont- 
eerrat, lost a valuable cargo by the decree of the Admiralty Court. Capt. 
Glover was condemned at St. Kitts. Capt. Gilbert, after being deprived 
of part of his lading, was released. The French privateers, slipping out 
of the island ports, and waylaying the customary paths of commerce, 
caught many a rich prize, — -the courts before which the captured vessels 
were carried, being sure to condemn the cargo as contraband. 

Capt. Sangar in the schooner Chloe was captured, and he and his peo- 
ple stripped of every article of value, even to the clothing on their per- 
sons. The captain himself was set ashore at Laguira, barefoot. The 
vessel was afterward released, but at a later period was again captured, 
Ebenezer Gooley, master, carried into Guadaloupe, and never apjjeared in 
our waters afterward. 

In February, 1797, Capt. Webb, in a voyage to Jeremie, was taken 
and carried into Petit Guave, where he was detained ninety days, a quar- 
ter of his cargo taken, and he lost all his crew by sickness, except one 
man. 

Capt. Isaac Hull, afterward the veteran hero of the frigate Constitution, 
but then a ship-master in the AVest India trade, was repeatedly arrested 
in his voyages by hostile cruisers. He was taken in May, 1797, in the 
ship Minerva of New London, and lost both vessel and cargo. He 
returned home, and in July started on another voyage in the schooner 
Beaver, of Norwich. He was again captured and carried into Porto 
Rico, where he was once more condemned. 

In March, the brig Betsey, J. Lord, was taken by the French, carried 
into Guadaloupe, tried and released ; afterward taken by the English, car- 
ried into Tortola, and a second time tried and released. 

The Sally, Capt. Boswell, bound to Jeremie, with nearly ninety head of 
Btock on board, was taken by the armed brig Pandure, of fourteen guns, 
the privateer firing a broadside before hailhig. She took out twenty-one 
men, nearly the whole crew, and putting eleven Frenchmen in their place, 
ordered the vessel to a French port. Eight days afterward she was taken 
by an English brig, carried into a neutral port, and there given up to Capt. 
Boswell, half her cargo being retained for salvage. 

The brig Hannah, Park Benjamin, was also twice taken in one voyage, 
and after some loss and detention, released. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 497 

The ship Young Eagle (returning from Liverpool in August) sailed 
Sept. 19 for the West Indies, under Absalom Pride, with no contraband 
goods whatever on boai'd. She was however taken by a French priva- 
teer, carried into port and condemned, solely upon the plea of not being 
furnished with a role d'equipage, or registry of the crew. The vessel was 
however redeemed by Capt, Pride. 

The Charlotte, Alexander Morgan, in a homeward passage from Dem- 
arara, was overhauled by a privateer sloop of four guns from Guadaloupe, 
and stripped of every thing valuable, even to the charts, books, clothes 
and cash of the officers. The Lark, Gilbert, was boarded and searched 
by an English twenty-gun frigate, and released, but was afterward twice 
chased by French privateers, from whom she barely escaped. 

Li March, 1798, the schooner Polly, Smith, was taken by an English 
vessel near St. Bartholomew, robbed of a negro boy, forty shoats, and 
$200 in cash, and then released. 

The continuance of these depredations made it imperative for trading 
vessels either to be furnished with means for self-defence, or to hover 
under the wing of an armed escort. Early in 1798, the ships Hope, E. 
Clark, and Sally, Buswell, were respectively fitted with an armament of 
fifteen and twelve guns, for the purpose of protecting themselves and 
others. They dropped down to New London in May, and were soon 
joined by seven brigs and schooners from Norwich, under Captains Ben- 
jamin, L. P. W. Chester, Cook, Gilbert, Lord, Billings, and Winchester, 
and several other vessels of the New London district, making a respect- 
able West Lidia fleet that sailed under their convoy. 

Tropical fevers during this season were intensely virulent. Capt. Bos- 
well of the Sally lost eight of his crew. Joseph Lanman, second mate of 
the Hope, died at sea, after leaving the Mole, to return home. Tliese two 
vessels arrived the 1st of October, crowded with French passengers. The 
Mole was about to be evacuated, and possession taken by the African Gen- 
eral Touissant. A fleet of thirty American vessels left the islands, under 
convoy of the Hope and Sally. 

It was in August and September of the year 1798, that the yellow fever 
raged with such fatal severity at New London. All vessels coming up the 
river were required to lie at quarantine near Bushnell's Cove, under the 
direction of the Health Committee. 

In February, 1799, an action took place ofi" St. Kitts between a French 
and American frigate ; the Constellation, Commodore Truxton, captured 
LTnsurgente. A regular war with France was now seriously appre- 
hended, and forcible seizures were made on both sides. 

A few more instances of the loss sustained by Norwich adventurers 
will be given, though not always perhaps in the true order of sequence. 
From the injuries that fell to the share of one small poit, some estimate 
32 



498 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

may be formed of the ravages perpetrated on the whole American coast, 
by the belligerent powers, out of fierce indignation at our neutrality. 

Most of the seizures were made upon the plea of having contraband 
goods on board. Horses, one of the most profitable articles sent to the 
West India market, were contraband. 

The schooner Commerce, Samuel Freeman, bound to Martinico, was 
taken by the privateer L'Esperance, within an hour's sail of her port, and 
a prize-master with four men put on board. Capt. Freeman with a part 
of his crew were left with them. Watching his opportunity, he rose upon 
his captors, and after an obstinate resistance, in which one man was killed 
and others wounded, succeeded in retaking the vessel. Capt. Freeman in 
the conflict received three severe flesh-wounds from a cutlass. Unfortu- 
nately the privateer discovered that the Commerce was altering her 
course, and gave chase, compelling the captain at last to run the vessel 
ashore, among the breakers on the east side of Dominique, where she 
went to pieces. 

In 1799, the West India fleet belonging to Norwich sailed in January. 
It consisted of the armed ships Hope, B. Coit, and Sally, John McCarty ; 
the ship General Lincoln, E. Lord, J. Kelly supercargo ; schooners Fair 
Lady, Benajah Leffingwell, Friendship, J. Wiiiiamn, Favorite, B. Paine ; 
sloops Ncgociator, Munsell, and Prosperity, J. W. Brewster. Other ves- 
sels that had sailed in December, and were then out, were the brig Bay- 
onne, Satterlee ; schooners Lark, Gilbert; Harriet, Webb; Jenny and 
Hannah, G. Bill ; Chloe, E. Cooley ; and sloops Despatch and Fai-mer. 

The Hope and Sally were bound to Barbadoes. They came home by 
Havana, with rich cargoes, and ai'rived safely, but the Sally had lost half 
her crew by sickness. The Hope sailed once more, in August, under 
Sylvester Bill, but on her return voyage was captured by a French pri- 
vateer. The Hope had fifteen guns, and the privateer only four, but the 
French conquered by stratagem. They had eighty men in their vessel, 
■and dressing a part of them in women's apparel, decking the ship witli 
garlands, and filling the air with joyous songs and shouts, they deceived 
Capt. Bill, who, as they were near the land, took it for a coasting vessel 
with a pleasure party on board. He was boarded and his deck covered 
with armed men, before he had opportunity to make any resistance. 

The General Lincoln, only three days out of New London, in a heavy 
gale, lost her second mate, Elisha Reynolds, overboard, and had 50 head 
of stock swept away. She however pursued her voyage, and returned 
in May with goods consigned to G. L'Hommeiieu, John Converse, &c. 
The Fair Lady lost, by sickness, the mate, Oliver Barker, and two sea- 
men. 

The Favorite was arrested by a privateer on her outward voyage, and 
plundered of all her small stock, cabin stores, furniture, charts, and instru- 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 499 

ments, and tlien released. Capt. G. Bill's schooner and the sloo]i Pros- 
perity were both seized, cai'ricd into Gnadalou})e, condemned, and for- 
feited. 

1800. The brig Harriot, Francis Smith, in a return voyage from 
Demarara, was taken and sent into Martinique, but having nothing con- 
traband on board, was liberated, and proceeded on her voyage. Before 
reaching the coast, she was taken by an English armed vessel and sent 
into St. Kitts, where she was tried by the court, released, and came from 
thence in 27 days. 

The schooner Fair Lady, J. "Williams, was taken by a French armed 
vessel called " Conquest of Italy." A prize crew were put on board, and 
she was ordered into a French port. Capt. Williams was detained on 
board the privateer, which was fortunately soon after captured by the 
Connecticut sloop-of-war, Capt. Ti-yon. 

The schooner Paragon, Jonathan Lester, captured by the French, was 
re-captured by the English and taken into an English port. After paying 
a salvage of one-third of her cargo, and all the costs, she was suffered to 
proceed on her voyage. 

Tiie brig Caroline, Harvey "Winchester, was taken, plundered, scuttled, 
and sunk. The crew were carried to St. Kitts, and there detained for 
some time as prisoners. 

Capt. Leffingwell in the ship Patty, while at Jamaica, had most of his 
crew prostrated with the yellow fever. Jedidiah Kelley, supercargo of 
the vessel, and Joshua Walworth, died before leaving the port. 

Ship Sally, McCarty, leaving Liverpool with a lading of salt, when 
just oif the harbor, went ashore near tlie Queen's Dock, and both vessel 
and cargo were lost, September, 1800. 

The brig William, Samuel Freeman, foundered at sea, Sept. 10, 1800. 
Her stock was swept overboard ; she was dismasted, lost her rudder, and 
in this situation the crew remained ten days, when they were taken off by 
a Spanish vessel and carried to the South American coast, one man only 
being lost, viz., William Roath. Capt. Freeman came home from the Bay 
of Honduras with Capt. Sparrow in the brig Despatch. Tlie wreck was 
found at sea by one of our vessels, towed into Newport, brought round to 
the West Chelsea ship-yard, and refitted for new service. 

The same season, Capt. Hezekiah Freeman, in the brig Ann, durin" a 
violent gale, had all his stock swept overboard, — in sailor language, sent 
down as a tribute to Davie Jones. The brig Favorite, Capt. Bruraley, 
was likewise dismasted. 

Capt. Gilbert, in the brig Three Sisters, foundered at sea and lost both 
vessel and cargo ; the crew clinging to the wreck, were at last relieved. 
Many such disasters occurred in the terrible hurricane season of Septem- 
ber, 1800, and similar incidents continue to stream along the current of 



500 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

West India trade from year to year. We can not follow the list with con- 
secutive detail, or anything like exhaustive accuracy. 

1801. The new brig Resolution, Alpheus Billings, bound to Demarara, 
was taken 27 days out and sent to Guadaloupe. The captain and crew 
were detained several weeks, most of the time in prison, and then sent in 
a cartel to St. Kitts. They reached home in July. 

1803. The bi-ig William lost while in the West Indies, Capt. George 
W. Palmer, master, Samuel Hyers, mate, and three seamen, by sickness. 

In July, 1804, four vessels from Norwich cleai'ed at the New London 
custom-house nearly at the same time : 

Brig William, John Brown. 

" Dove, John McGowty. 

" Fortune, Charles Billings. 
Schooner Betsey, Christopher Colver. 

They all sailed before the first of August, and were often within hailing 
distance or in sight of each other while on the voyage, and one afternoon 
three of these vessels, the William, Fortune, and Betsey, while sailing in 
the tropical seas, the air being calm and the ocean smooth, ran along side 
by side, and the crews called to each other and conversed from the hay- 
stacks on deck, where they were eating their supper. That very night a 
tremendous hurricane swept over those seas, and neither the William or 
the Fortune were ever heard from afterward ; the destruction being so 
complete that no memento of their fate was found. But of this hurricane, 
so narrow was its scope, the only influence that reached Capt. Colver was 
a magnificent billowy swell of the sea, rolhng him on and following him 
for two days.* 

A monumental inscription in the Chelsea burial-ground shows that the 
family of Capt. Alpheus Billings had a heavy share in the loss of the 
Fortune. 

This monument is erected to the Memory 

of Capt. Charles Billings 

aged 32 years, 

and James F. Billings 

aged 18 years, 

and Benjamin Billings 

aged 15 years. 

Sons of Capt. Alpheus and Mrs. Elizabeth Billings, 

and also of Mr. David Barber, 

a son-in-law aged 26 years. 

Who were lost at sea in September, 1 804, 

in the Brig Fortune. 



* These facts are derived from Capt. Colver, who, at the age of 90, in the possession 
of a o-ood deo-ree of health and mental vigor, is still to be seen almost daily, taking his 
accustomed walks and lingering upon the wharfiige by the river. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 501 

Jan. 20, 1804, the sloop Ruby, Jonathan Roath, seven clays from Nor- 
tblk, was wrecked on Block Island. A tempestuous snow-storm raging at 
the time, and the weather extremely cold, the crew escaped with dilficulty. 
The next day the vessel went to pieces. 

Capt. Francis Smith had sailed for several years in the brig Hai-riot, 
meeting with all the varieties of good and bad fortune. His arrival from 
one of these voyages, when some apprehension prevailed that the brig 
was lost, is thus noticed in the Norwich Courier, April 11, 1804: 

" It is with pleasure wc announce the safe arrival of the brig Harriet, Capt. Smith, 
after a passage of 70 days from Demarara, having experienced very heavy gales of 
wind on the coast, which drove her off nine times and so much damaged her sails and 
rigging as to render them useless." 

Capt. Smith sailed again in June, and left Demarara on the return 
voyage Aug. 21st, but on the 5th of September encountered a heavy gale 
from the south and east, which increased to a hurricane. The next day, 
while lying to under bare poles, the brig was knocked on her beam ends, 
and the bowsprit and foremast swept off. By cutting away the mainmast 
the vessel i-ighted, and the crew succeeded in rigging a jury foremast and 
a bowsprit. But the sea running high, the vessel leaking, and the spars 
and rigging all expended, so that they could make no after sail, and meet- 
ing for several days only vessels in distress, they abandoned the wreck 
and took to the boats, and were fortunately relieved by a vessel that landed 
them in Virginia. 

The brig Ontario, (Henry Eldridge,) owned by Jesse Brown, Sen., in 
a homeward voyage from Martinique, was wrecked upon the Elizabeth 
Islands, March 9, 1805. The crew were saved, but the vessel, with its 
valuable cargo of sugar, cocoa and coffee, was lost. 

In the loss of men from marine pursuits, Norwich suffered less than 
New London and some other ports, yet her victims were neither few nor 
far between, as the following mortuary list of a single year, gathered at 
this distance of time from the scanty memorials extant, will testify:. 

Deaths at Sea during the year 1805. 

Isaac Loring, of the brig Despatch, at Demarara. 

Joseph Brewster, at the same place. 

Capt. Jeremiah Harris, aged 35, at Martinique. 

William, son of Jesse Brown, do. 

William, son of Elkanah Tisdale of Lebanon, do. 

Henry Loring, of brig Iris, drowned at Green Island. 

John Batty, aged 21, of sch. Mechanic, at sea. 

John Wedgo, aged 21, at sea. 

Jolm Gary, at sea. 

Ilezekiah, son of Capt. Daniel Mcech, of Preston, aged 22. 

Charles E. Trumbull, aged 24, at sea. 



502 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Connected with the marine intelligence, during the latter part of the 
18th and beginning of the 19th century, frequent allusions are made to 
the civil conflicts that convulsed several of the islands, and particularly St. 
Domingo. The following is an instance : 

April 14, 1804, a ship from Cape Francois came into Long Island 
vSouud with 300 men, women and children on board, who had escaped with 
their lives and came as exiles to this country, leaving their homes to de- 
vastation. Capt. Frederick Tracy of Norwich was also on board. He 
had been for some years engaged in business at the Cape, and fled with 
the rest at the approach of the ruthless invader. The vessel went into 
New York. 

The most melancholy marine disasters are those which are shrouded in 
uncertainty. A vessel disappears, — it is heard from no more, and is sup- 
posed to have been ingulfed by the ocean, but no one returns to relate how 
and when the catastrophe happened. The hearts of friends are long ago- 
nized with alternate hope and dread, while imagination brings up dark 
pictures of a cruel death from pirates, a wreck upon desert islands, or a 
wearisome captivity in barbarous lands. 

Capt. Z. P. Burnham -was a ship-master of m^ny years experience, 
beginning with 1790. He had retired from the sea to mercantile pur- 
suits, but was persuaded to make one more voyage, and left the coast, 
bound for TenerifFe, March 10, 1810, after which no tidings of vessel or 
crew were ever received.* His fate seemed a duplicate of that of his 
uncle, whose name he bore, — Capt. Zebulon Perkins having perished 
before the Revolutionary war, in a similar way. 

The same darkness rests upon the fate of Capt. Elisha Leffingwell. 
He left New London for the Gulf of Mexico in October, 1825, and is 
supposed to have foundered at sea. He was 47 years of age. His eldest 
son perished with him, in his 15th year, 

* Capt. Burnham was about 44 years of age. His relict, the oklcst daughter of 
Elisha Hyde, Esq., second Mayor of the City, born Oct. 11, 1776, is still living, and 
resides with her son, Elisha Hyde Burnham, at Newstead, N. Y, She has been 65 
vears a widow. 



CHAPTER XL. 

Emigration. 

We have already adverted to the emigration from New London county 
to Nova Scotia. A fair proportion of these settlers went from Norwich, 
but no list of names or families has been obtained. 

Several of the first proprietors of the townships of Canaan and Leba- 
non in New Hampshire were from Norwich and its neighborhood. Leb- 
anon was surveyed in 1761, by a party of seven or eight men who spent 
the winter there in a temporary hut reared in the wilderness, laying out 
farms and clearing the way for regular habitations. Lands in this north- 
ern province were at first purchased on speculation. Andrew Perkins, 
among others, obtained the title to large tracts in Canaan, Hanover, and 
Cardigan. These proprietors sold out in smaller sections or farms to 
actual settlers. Chapman, Harris, Hyde, Lathrop, Post, Tracy, and other 
names indigenous to the Nine-miles-squai*e, were transplanted to parts of 
New Hampshire and Vermont at various periods between 17 GO and 
1800. 

Norwich in Vermont owes its name to the retrospective tenderness of 
some of these emigrants for their former home. Capt. Jedidiah Hyde 
gave name to Hyde Park in Vermont. 

Elisha Tracy, about the year 1790, was largely interested in the pur- 
chase and sale of lands in the neighborhood of Chelsea, Vt. Several 
families from Norwich removed thither, and probably gave the name of 
Chelsea to the place. 

Norwich in Massachusetts, settled a few years before the Kevolution, 
also testifies by its name to the original home of some of its most conspic- 
uous founders. The first Congregational minister was Rev. Stephen 
Tracy, a native of our Norwich. John Kirtland, a useful and infiuential 
member of the young community, went from Newent society. 

The Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania collected a quota of its early 
inhabitants from Norwich. This fine tract of land, twenty miles in length 
and three in breadth, with the noble Susquehanna winding through it was 
in ancient times the favorite seat of the Delaware tribe of Indians. Con- 
necticut claimed the jurisdiction, as it lay within the bounds of her orig- 



604 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

inal charter, and the natives having become few and scattered, two com- 
panies were formed for the purchase, exploration and settlement of the 
country. 

The Susquehanna Company, which was organized at Windham in 
1753,* consisted of several hundred subscribers. This Company made 
the Wyoming purchase of the Six Nations, at a council held at Albany in 
1754. The Delaware Company purchased a tract east of this, extending 
to the Delaware river. 

The fii'st settlements at Wyoming were broken up and a part of the 
emigrants slaughtered by the Pennamites, or settlers under the claim of 
Pennsylvania. It is not known that any of these first adventui'ers were 
from Noi'wich. 

In 1768, five townships were laid out, and each granted to forty persons 
who engaged " to man their rights," that is, make actual settlements upon 
them. These were afterwards named Wilkesbarre, Hanover, Kingston, 
(at first called Forty-town,) Plymouth, and Pittston, comprising the heart 
of the valley. To settle these towns, a large emigration went from Con- 
necticut. Among the leading men were Zebulon Butler from Lyme, Na- 
than Denison from Stonington, and John Durkee from Norwich, — each 
accompanied by a party gathered from his neighborhood. 

These measures, so far as Norwich was interested, were the result of 
individual enterprise. The only allusion to the western lands, on the town 
records, is the following: 

Sept. 12, 1769. Voted to apply for a grant of 20 miles square of the Colony lands 
lying west of, and adjoining to, the Susquehannah Purchase with ample right to pur- 
chase the native right to said lands. — Samuel Huntington to act as agent. 

The pioneers to these western wilds encountered great obstacles, and 
were so repeatedly broken up, or harrassed by the Pennamites, that a few 
were discouraged and returned to their old homes, but the greater part 
remained firm at their posts, and at length obtained quiet possession of the 
country. 

The several Connecticut colonies thus established at Wyoming, were 
organized March 2, 1770, into one town, or district, called Westmoreland, 
and attached to Litchfield county. It remained for eight or nine years 
under the jurisdiction of Connecticut ; deriving its laws from the colony, 
and sending representatives to its assembly. Before 1775, it contained 
2,000 inhabitants. 

On the monument in Wyoming, erected in memory of the victims of 
Indian and tory cruelty in the fatal attack of July 3, 1778, the names of 
Durkee, Ransom, Waterman, Avery, Crocker, Hammond, Marshall, 

* Miner's History of Wyoming. 



HISTORY OF NORAVICH. 505 

Palmer, Reynolds, and others, indicate their origin, and remind us of our 
ancient towns-people.* 

The original proprietors of Warwick and Bedford in Pennsylvania were 
from Norwich. The former of these towns was surveyed by Zachariah 
Lathrop in 1773. 

The committee of the first and second Delaware purchases were Eben- 
ezer Baldwin, Jabez Fitch, Joseph Griswold, Isaac Tracy, Elisha Tracy, 
Nehemiah Waterman, and Dudley Woodbridge, all of Norwich. Azariah 
Lathrop was a large pi'oprietor of the township of Huntington, in the first 
Delaware purchase. 

The Wyoming settlements were devastated and almost destroyed dur- 
ing the Revolutionary war, and remained for a long period in a disturbed 
and hazardous condition. Various companies and different races of men 
struggled for several years with one another and with the wolves, pan- 
thers, and poisonous serpents, for the possession of this fertile valley. 

From 1795 to 1800, there existed in Connecticut a mania for emigra- 
tion. The reports of exploiters and the letters written home by pioneers, 
while they spoke of innumerable hardships and privations, only increased 
the thirst for adventure. Yet emigi-ation at this period was a serious 
undertaking, and friend bade adieu to friend with almost as much solem- 
nity as at the gates of another world. To say of one, " He has removed 
to the Susquehannah country," — "Started for Muskingum,"— " Gone to 
the Genesees," — were vague and mysterious announcements, almost equiv- 
alent to a departure for another planet. But still the romance of the en- 
terprise threw a veil over its discomforts. 

Elisha Hyde and Elisha Tracy were' largely interested in the Susque- 
hannah purchase, and made several visits to the country for the sale and 
survey of lands. Andrew Tracy, secretary of the Delaware Company, 
sold his farm and his mills and dwelling-house on Bean Hill, and removed 
in 1798. Other emigrants to Luzerne, of that early period, were Colonel 
Eleazar Blackman and John Robinson of Lebanon, Jabez Hyde of Frank- 
lin, and Andrew Beaumont of Bozrah. 

A considerable company went with Col. Ezekiel Hyde in 1799, and 
established themselves at Rindan on the Wyalusing. Enoch Reynolds 
opened the first assortment of goods at that place. He was afterward an 
officer of the Treasury Department at Washington. Lathrops, Birchards 
and otlier Norwich families settled upon the Wyalusing and at Ruby. 

Capt. Peleg Tracy and his brother Leonard, and Capt. Joseph Chap- 
man, a revolutionary patriot and ship-master, were men of note and influ- 
ence among the emigrants. 

Even th* women that belonged to these parties were sustained above 
fear and discouragement by a spirit of chivalric determination. Lydia 

* Peck's Wyoming, p. 385. 



506 HISTOEY OP NORWICH. 

Chapman, a daughter of Capt. Joseph, went out in the year 1800, with 
her younger bi'Others, to join her father. She was the only female in a 
considerable party of emigrants, and was sixteen days on the journey, in 
the variable, damp, restless atmosphere of a February without snow. Not 
a murmur escaped her, and her noble patience and cheerful hope animated 
and sustained her companions. She afterwards married a Norwich emi- 
grant, G. W. Trott, a physician of Wilkesbarre.* Her brothers, Isaac 
A. and Edward Chapman, were men of more than common talent. Ed- 
ward, though he died young, had exhibited proofs of poetical genius. He 
is the author of the well-known song, — 

" Columbia's sliores are wild and wide." 

From this brief survey of the "Wyoming emigrants the name of Charles 
Miner must not be omitted. Born under the shadow of Meeting-house 
Hill, Feb. 1, 1780; the son of a revolutionary soldier, educated at the 
Lathrop school on the Plain ; social in disposition, with a vigorous, inquir- 
ing mind, he carried with him to Wyoming and ever retained a vivid im- 
pression of what Norv/ich was at the beginning of the century.y 

He learned the printer's trade with Col. Samuel Green in the Gazette 
office at New London, and after his settlement in Pennsylvania, united 
with his brother Asher, who had preceded him in emigrating to the "Wy- 
oming valley, in publishing the "Lucerne County Federalist." Thia 
paper, which they established in Wilkesbarre in 1801, was continued for 
thirteen years. Mr. Chas. Miner was afterward editor of "The Gleaner," 
and still later of the " Village Record," published at Westchester. The 
Gleaner was enriched with a series of discursive essays, " From the Desk 
of Poor Robert the Scribe," which came from Mr. Miner's pen. He is 
also the author of an interesting History of Wyoming, published at Phil- 
adelphia in 1845, and was a member of Congress from Westchester dis- 
trict from 1825 to 1829.1 

Several parts of Ohio, even before 1790, were sprinkled over with 
names familiar to this neighborhood, viz., Adgate, Armstrong, Hartshorn, 
Kinsman, Kingsbury, LefRngwell, Perkins, Tracy. Marietta in her be- 
ginning obtained some of her most efficient settlers from Norwich. Dud- 

* The wife of the Hon. G. W. Woodward is their daughter and only child. 

t See Letter of Charles Miner in Appendix to Norwich Jubilee, for a graphic sketch 
of Norwich up-foivn. Mr. Miner visited Norwich in 1839, with his son. The old dwell- 
ing-house in which he had been reared was gone, but he went up the hill on the slope 
of which it had stood, saying he must look for the Brown Thrasher's nest that he left 
titer e. 

t While this work has been going through the press, his death has been p.nnounced. 
"Hon. Charles Miner died at Wilkesbarre, Oct. 26th, 1865, in the 8 6th year of his 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 507 

ley TVoodbridge went thither in 1788, and though afterward returning for 
a season, removed with his family in 1794.* Elijah Backus was another 
early inhabitant of note and influence, who went from Norwich. 

The beautiful town of Norwich in Chenango county, N, Y., is another 
place to which our Norwich between the rivers stood sponsor. Preston 
in the same county joins Norwich, and was originally a part of it, acting 
over again the old neighborhood of our Norwich and Preston. Oxford, 
also in Chenango county, derived some of its founders from the same 
fountain-head. Dr. Benjamin Butler in the year 1800 advertised twenty 
farms for sale within two or three miles of Oxford court-house. 

In May, 1798, a vessel sailed from Stonington for Albany, with families 
gathered from neighboring towns, that were on the way to found new 
homes in the Unadilla region. 

The pleasure and convenience of keeping up an intercourse between 
these emigrants to the West and the friends and possessions left behind, 
led to the inauguration of a peculiar species of vehicle, viz. : 

Hartshorn's Stage-wagon. 

This was a ponderous house-like machine on wheels, drawn by six 
horses, which made six or eight regular trips per year to Chemung, Ger- 
man Flats, &c., carrying passengers, letters, and freight. Its arrival at 
Franklin and Norwich was hailed with enthusiasm, as it was sure to 
bring intelligence from distant friends. The letters sent home were filled 
with interesting narratives of hardships endured and dangers encountered, 
with many a cheering episode relating to jovial parties and rural pas- 
times. f 

The Western Reserve, called also New Connecticut, was a territory 
belonging to the State of Connecticut, which lay on Lake Erie, west of 
Pennsylvania. It contained three millions of acres. The Fire-Lands, 
comprising the western portion of 500,000 acres, had been granted by the 
State to those towns in Connecticut which suffered from the torch of the 
enemy during the Revolutionary war. In 1786 the General Assembly 
passed an act to survey and dispose of the remainder of the territory. 
Hon. Benjamin Huntington of Norwich Avas one of the three commission- 

* He died at Marietta, in 1823, at the age of 76. His children were all natives of 
Norwich. Dudley, the oldest son, died at Marietta in 1853. The second son, Hon. 
Wm. Woodbridgo of Detroit, was Governor of Micliigan in 1839, and U. S. Senator 
from 1841 to 1847. 

t Tlie Norwich Packet published an account of a terrific combat between four men 
and a bear, which took place June 6th, 1797, at Norivkh, the \Uh township on the Una- 
dilla river. The four men were Doctor Dan Foote, Enoch Marvin and his son, and a 
hired man. Three of them were badly wounded, but the animal was finally conquered, 
and weighed when dressed, 260 lbs. 



508 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

ers appointed for this business. In 1795, it was sold to a Land. Company 
organized for this object, and under their management the whole three 
millions of acres, then an almost unbroken wilderness, was surveyed and 
distributed into townships and farms, and offered to settlers on easy terms. 
This territory now forms a tier of counties in the northei'n part of Ohio. 
The settlement commenced in 1796. 

General Joseph "Williams of Norwich was a prominent member of this 
Land Company. Daniel L. Coit, another of the original purchasers, 
devoted time, labor, means and influence to promote the settlement of the 
country, and made repeated visits thither, undismayed by the long and 
wearisome journey. Among the new towns founded, Williamsfield and 
Coitsville perpetuate the names of these patrons. 

Wheeler W. Williams, who went from Norwich, built in 1799, with his 
partner. Major Wyatt, the first grist-mill and saw-mill in the Western 
Reserve. A greater benefit could scarcely have been conferred upon this 
new country at that time. The towns of Norwich, Huntington, Kinsman 
and Kirtland, in this range of territory, indicate by their names the origin 
of some of their first settlers. Col. Simon Perkins of Lisbon, a Revolu- 
tionary officer, removed with his family to Warren, Ohio. 

The Hon. Samuel Huntington, one of the most distinguished of these 
emigrants to the Western Reserve, left Norwich with his family in May, 
1801, and settled first at Cleveland, but afterwards at Painesville, where 
his children and descendants still reside. The new country found in him 
a useful and efficient magistrate. He was Colonel of the militia, Judge 
of the Supreme Court, and Governor of the State from 1808 to 1810. 
He held also a great variety of other offices, by which he promoted the 
public welfare, and merits the honor of being reckoned among the found- 
ers of Ohio. He died at Painesville, June 8, 1817, aged 49. 

The first settlements upon these wild lands were made by small bodies 
of emigrants, scattered at considerable distances from each other, some 
amid dense woods, and others near the Indian borders. Consequently 
they suffered much from the horrors of the wilderness, as well as for want 
of food and clothing. Wonderful were the accounts occasionally received 
concerning their hardships and adventures ; more thrilling even than the 
first experience of the early settlers at Wyoming.* Governor Hunting- 
ton, while riding through the woods, was attacked by a pack of wolves, 

* The following incident was related in a letter sent home by a family that had 
removed to the banks of the Muskingum, Two young women who had newly arrived 
in the settlement, were out gathering berries. They had never heard the war-whoop, 
and a young man who was their companion proposed to amuse them with a sample. 
He had no sooner uttered the terrible cry, than to their great consternation it was an- 
swered by another whoop, prolonged and loud, from a distant hill, and a moment after- 
ward by still another from the depth of the forest. The affrighted party hastened back 
to the protection of their fort. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 509 

from which he only escaped by the fleetness of his horse. A party of 
young people gathering berries near the Muskingum, suddenly alarmed 
by sounds of the war-whoop rising from the thickets near them, retreated 
in wild dismay to the protection of their fort. A cabin was buried by the 
snow, and three days elapsed before the family was extricated. A boy 
kidnapped by the Indians, had become almost a man before he was re- 
leased. The tomahawk and scalping-knife, savage beasts and deadly ser- 
pents, figured largely in these tales. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Miscellanies. Bean Hill. The Town Plot. Biographical Sketches. 

After the Revolutionary war, and onward into the next century, the 
Town-plot or First Society continued to be the center of influence and 
activity, resonant with the hum of business and the clamor of mechanical 
operations. Upon Bean Hill, Witter's and Hyde's taverns displayed their 
signs, and several flourishing stands of dry-goods and groceries, offered 
for sale by Daniel Rodman, Col. Rogers, Samuel Woodbridge, &c., kept 
the platform lively with shopping and social activity. Here also, in a 
bend of the Yantic, a saw-mill, grist-mill and oil-mill were grouped to- 
gether and known as Tracy's mills, but sold by the proprietor, Andrew 
Tracy, upon his removal to Pennsylvania in 1798, to Hyde & Hosmer. 
Capt. Joseph Hosmer, of this firm, died in 1805. 

Samuel Woodbridge was afterward of the firm of Woodbridge & SnoW) 
at the Landing. The old stand on Bean Hill, where he and his father-in- 
law, Col. Rogers, had traded, was advertised for sale several years later, 
with this brief recommendation, — Money has been made there, and can be 
again. 

Aaron Cleveland, a man of wonderful versatility of talent, was another 
noted dweller upon the hill. He carried on the hat business, but at the 
same time wrote poems, essays, lectures and sermons upon all the prom- 
inent subjects of the day, social, political, and religious. His speeches in 
public and his private harangues, his exhortations at meetings and his 
stirring articles in the newspapers, were always thrown in to swell the 
current in favor of religious truth and human freedom. 

The Hydes and Huntingtons of Bean Hill, with a sprinkling of Water- 
mans and Tracys, were sufficient of themselves to foi'm a community. 
Capt. James Hyde, born in 1707, had a family of five sons^nd one daugh- 
ter. One of the sons was the Rev. Simeon Hyde, who settled in the min- 
istry at Deerfield, N. J. The others, Ebenezer, James, Eliab, and Abial, 
with the daughter Abiah, who married Aaron Cleveland, occupied neigh- 
borino' homesteads, and are all well remembered by many now on the stage 
of life. The father lived to be 87, with these four sons quietly flourishing 
around him, — blameless men, and excellent citizens. None of them emi- 
grated ; all lived into the present century, and all lie buried in Norwich. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 611 

The four Huntington brother?, sons of Dea. Simon, were also dwellerv's 
upon the hill, or on neighboring farms, and have a similar history. Far 
different has it been with the children of these grave householders. As 
they grew up to manhood, they took wing and flew away to other boweries, 
and the descendants are scattered from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. 
Erastus, the youngest of the Huntington brothers, had nine sons ; six of 
these removed to Cincinnati. 

The descendants of those energetic ship-masters, Jared and Frederick 
Tracy, in like manner, leaving Norwich in their youth, may be traced to 
many varied scenes of active business life : to Vermont, Utica, Whites- 
boro, Boston, New York, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Porto Rico. 

Capt. Arunah "Waterman and his three sons, Thomas, Azariah, and 
Joseph, removed with their families, about the year 1801, to Johnson, 
Vermont. 

Descendants of Ebenezer Thomas, (who came from Duxbury and set- 
tled in the town -plot about 1730,) may likewise be traced to far distant 
homes in the west and south.* 

Before leaving this district, we would notice that Miron Winslow 
opened a retail store on Bean Hill in June, 1811. This was the Rev. 
Dr. Winslow, missionary for forty-five years in Ceylon and Madras, who 
resided in Norv/ich a few years before entering into the service of Vm- 
American Board, and was here married to his first wife, Harriet W. La- 
throp, a native of the place, Jan. 11, 1819. 

The town green, with its meeting-house, court-house, post-ofSce, jail, 
flag-staff or liberty-tree, three taverns, and four or five stores, was the 
center where all the excitements of the town culminated. The principal 
traders were John Perit,t Gardner Carpenter, and Dudley Woodbridge.J: 
The last-mentioned, — " next door east of the meeting-house," — was suc- 
ceeded in 1793 by Carew & Huntington, the firm changing in 1800 to 
Joseph & C. P. Huntington. On or near the green were also two print- 
ing-offices, each with a book-shop and bindery annexed, and each issuing a 
weekly newspaper. One of these establishments (Hubbard's) was re- 

* Edward Thomas, a grandson of Ebenezer, bom at Norwich in 1793, has been for 
the last forty years a resident in Augnsta, Ga. 

t Mr. Perit came to Norwich in 1 771, and here his two sons, John 'SY. Pcrit, for manv 
rears a merchant of rhiladclphia, cnga<!;ed in the China trade, and Pclatiali Perit, late 
President of the New York Chamber of Commerce, \vcro born. Mr. Pcrit removed 
to Philadelphia in 1790. 

J Dudley and Samuel Woodbridge were Fons of Dr. Dudley Woodbridge of Ston- 
ington. The two brothers settled in Norwich about 1770, and married into tlic families 
of Elijah Backus and Zabdicl Rogers. Their mother, Mrs. Sarali Woodbridge, died 
on Bean Hill in 1796. Dudley removed to Marietta, and there died in 1823, aged 7C, 
The children of botli the brothers — Dudley had six, and Samuel nine, — were born in 
Norwich. 



512 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

moved to Chelsea in 1798. Simon Carew had also a book-shop and 
bindery near the green. 

Further east in the town-plot were the firms of Samuel Huntington, 
nephew of the Governor, who removed to Ohio ia 1801 ; of Andrew & 
Zachariah Huntington, Avery & Tracy, Coit & Lathrop, Lathrop & Eells, 
Christopher Leffingwell & Son, (succeeded in 1801 by Joseph H. Strong,) 
Tracy & Coit ;* and near Chelsea Plain, Thomas Fanning. In short, 
retail stores and workshops dotted the whole way from Bean Hill to Chel- 
sea. Twenty trades are said to have been in thriving operation on the 
town street. Leffingwell's Row, built after 1790, originally comprised six 
or eight tenements, all occupied by mechanics. Harland's watch-factory 
was a noted establishment. Capt. Timothy Lester, an ingenious mechanic 
of this neighborhood, possessed a native bent for the mechanic arts, and 
was skillful in reducing principles to practical tests. He constructed the 
model of a new machine to be used in the hemp manufacture, which was 
patented and found to be of great use in its peculiar sphere.f In 1790, 
Dr. Joshua Lathrop commenced the cotton manufacture in a building near 
his store, setting in operation six jennies, six looms, and a carding-machine. 
To use the words of one who was himself a part of what he described, — 
"Norwich up-town was a bee-hive."f 

Lathrop's tavern on the Green had an assembly-room where public fes- 
tivities were held, such as anniversaries, balls, and dinners. 

Peck's tavern on the other side of the Green was overshadowed by a 
large elm tree, among whose central boughs an arbor was formed and 
seats arranged, to which, on public days, friendly groups resorted and had 
refreshments served, — a plank gallery being extended from a window of 
the house to the bower, as a means of access. 

Brown's hotel was famous for good dinners, and was patronized by 
gentlemen boarders. Merchants from the West Indies came there .at 
intervals, and were always ready for excursions and out-door amusements.§ 

* This firm began in 1780, and continued without change twenty -five years. The 
partners were Uriah Tracy and Joseph Coit. No descendants of either of these men 
now remain. Mr. Coit was never married, and the only son of Mr. Tracy died in 1834 
without posterity. 

t Capt. Lester died Aug. 20, 1810, aged 42. 

t Charles Miner of Wilkesbarre. 

§ Jesse Brown, in the early part of the Revolutionary war, was in the service of the 
State as an express agent and confidential messenger. Before the conclusion of the 
war he built his house on the Plain, next to that of Dudley Woodbridgc, and occupied 
it for many years as a hotel. It is now the residence of Mr. Moses Pierce, but the 
building has been repeatedly varied and improved, till it retains but a slight resem- 
blance to the old hotel. 

Mr. Vernett, who married the daughter of Mr. Brown, introduced into the garden 
of this house, about the year 1809, a species of grape not before cultivated in this 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 513 

Many a gallant hunting-party with hounds and servants started from the 
town-plot in those days. 

President Adams was accustomed to stop at Norwich on his journeys to 
and from the seat of government, and his arrival always drew forth some 
lively exhibition of respect. The Norwich Packet informs us that on 
Wednesday evening, Aug. 1, 1797, John Adams and lady arrived in town. 
" The matross company came out to welcome them in full uniform, and 
fired a federal salute of IG guns. They proceeded the next day to Prov- 
idence, a large company on horseback attending them out of town." 

Mr. Brown was also a stage contractor. The communication with Bos- 
ton was three times a week, the stage arriving on Sunday, "Wednesday, 
and Friday. On Sunday, it came by way of Providence and New Lon- 
don, leaving the latter place at 8 o'clock A. M., and arriving at Norwich 
Green about noon, — the stage-horn often sounding just as the audience 
issued from the church after morning service. This indicates a phase of 
public opinion different from that of 1720, when the Rogerenes Avere 
arrested for traveling on the Sabbath.* 

Several merchants in the town-plot were at this period actively engaged 
in the purchase of horses, cattle, and country produce. Droves of horses 
and mules, and all the bustle of loaded teams and lowing herds, trampling 
out the grass and blocking up the ways, were spectacles of frequent occur- 
rence in those streets, which for the last half-century have been distin- 
guished only for rural beauty and quiet comfort. 

The town-plot was not only the center of business, but also of fashion 
and gaiety. Bean Hill had its grand society. Lord Bellasize, an English 
nobleman, rusticated for a season on the hill, and though mingling but 
little with the inhabitants, contributed to the spectacles of the town by 
driving about in a handsome chariot with black servants in livery, and 
rousing the country echoes by fox-hunting. 

Of the causes which led this nobleman into temporary seclusion in 
America, his neighbors were ignorant. An advertisement in the Norwich 
Packet gives us a memento of his residence here. 

region. It was propagated from this vine into other gardens, was highly prized, and 
popularly called the Vernett grape. It is not known where Mr. Vernett obtained it, 
but it is supposed to be identical with the Isabella. The original vine planted by Mr. 
Vernett still flourishes where it was set, and bears well, tliough upwards of fifty years 
old. 

Mr. Brown removed with the Vernett family to Wilkcsbarre, Tenn., where he died 
in January, 1816, aged 63. 

* The desecration was not however allowed without protest. In Juno, 1 799, Joshua 
Lathrop and others sent a memorial to the Legislature, asking for a prohibitory act 
against the running of the stages on the Sabbath ; but the committee to whom the 
petition was referred, reported that the existing laws, if duly executed, were sufficient 
to remedy the evil. 
33 



514 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Ean away from the subscriber a negro servant named Jean Louis. Whoever will 
take up said Negro and return him to his master shall have one cent reward, but no 
charges paid. All persons are forbid trusting him on account of the subscriber. 

Belasize. 

Norwich, June 30, 1798. 

These sources of excitement and interest, with the popularity of the 
schools, the residence of the governor, the frequent visits of public func- 
tionaries, and the prevalence of social dinners and tea-parties, made Bean 
Hill, the Meeting-Home Green, and Round the Square, the brilliant part 
of the town.* 

It is remarkable that so much gaiety, excitement and social enjoyment 
should have existed in conjunction with early hours, industrious habits, 
moderate expenditure, and strict propriety of manners. The noon-bell 
and the evening-bell still retained their authority. Twelve o'clock sum- 
moned families to the dinner-table, and nine o'clock sent them to repose. 

Samuel Trumbull established a circulating library about the year 1793, 
which was gradually increased to 420 volumes', comprising the p'opular 
reading of the day, plays, novels, travels, essays, histories, sermons. Mr. 
Trumbull removed subsequently to Stonington Point, where, in Septem- 
ber, 1798, he issued the first number of a weekly newspaper called "A 
Journal of the Times." 

The success of his library led the way to a collection of more solid 
works. In 179 G, a committee of the citizens of the town-plot organized 
a Library Association. A subscription was taken up, and 250 volumes 
selected from the choicest stores of Enghsh literature, were purchased for 
a beginning. 

This library continued in operation about forty years, and though never 
much enlarged beyond the original stock, circulated thoroughly among the 
steady-habited residents of the old part of the town, contributing to the 
intellectual culture of the young and the refreshment of more mature 
minds. 

In 1797, John and Consider Sterry were book-sellers and book-binders. 
These men were brothers, both of marked intellect and good executive 
capacity, the one devoting his leisure moments to the duties of a Baptist 
elder, and the other to the improvement of the method of taking lunar 
observations. They soon added to their establishment a marble paper 
manufactory and the publication of a newspaper, viz., " The True Repub- 
lican," first issued in 1804. 

Norwich was at this time favored in her physicians. Dr. Jonathan 
Marsh, who died in 1798, was not only a successful bone-setter, but skill- 

* Advertisement in the Norwich Packet, 1791 : 

" The Ladies and Gentlemen of Norwich are informed that the Theatre will be 
opened at the Court House this evening with the tragedy of Douglas." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 515 

fill in other cases of surgery, and according to cotemporary authority, 
"ever I'eady to exercise his skill for the relief of the distressed and the 
destitute." 

Doctors Philip Turner and Philemon Tracy were men of high profes- 
sional merit, the one moi'e particularly valued in cases of surgery, and the 
other in those of disease. They had generally some young student under 
their instruction, visiting and practising with them. Dr. John Turner was 
a worthy pupil and successor of his father. Another son, William Pitt 
Turner, also a surgeon by profession, was one of those sportive and orig- 
inal characters that give a lively zest to the social circle. The professional 
circular of Benjamin Butler, M. D., issued in 1787, announces that he 
had been "regularly educated by the learned Doctor Philip Turner in the 
sciences of Physick and Surgery." 

The Turner house in Norwich stood against a back-ground of rocks, 
overshadowed with trees. The office near by was one of the noted local- 
ities of the place, regarded by children with a kind of shivering admira- 
tion, as containing a secret closet, whex-e an anatomy known as old Jock's 
hones was kept, and winning the attention of ti-avelers by its sign on which 
was painted a picture of the Good Samai-itan raising up the wounded man 
while the Priest and Levite passed on with averted eyes.* 

The principal students of Dr. Tracy were Asher and Abel Huntington, 
brothers, — the former settling in Chenango county, N. Y., and the latter 
at East Hampton, L. I. ; Benajah P. Bailey of Gi*iswold ; Peter Allen, 
who emigrated to Ohio ; and Richard P. Tracy, the son of the practi- 
tionei', now and for forty years past a physician in Norwich-town. The 
professional life of the three Ti-acys, father, son, and grandson, covers a 
period of one hundred and twenty-three years, all passed in the same 
parish : an instance of stability not common among a people so restless 
and excitable as the Americans. 

The town was indebted for various public improvements to the influence 
and liberality of Dr. Joshua Lathrop and Capt. William Hubbard. They 
were particularly instrumental in opening streets and improving the high- 
ways both of town and landing. The former gave at one time $300 to be 
laid out on the road around the north side of the central plot, while Capt. 
Hubbard caused the old pathway through the grove to be widened and 
cleared of rocks and incumbering trees. 

Tradition depicts the wild beauty of this ancient lane in such vivid 
colors that we are almost led to regret the improvement. It was a wind- 
ing cart-path along the river-bank, overarched with lofty trees and crossed 
by a rapid stream, where the teamsters paused in a hot summer's day to 

* At the bi-centennial gathering in 1859, this old sign was exhibited, and also a 
powdcr-horu engraved with figures of beasts and birds and bearing this inscription : 
" Doct. Philip Turner. His hora. Fort Edward 1758." 



516 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

refresh themselves and their cattle in the shade. The young people were 
shy of this dark lane in the evening. Yet evenings there, at the proper 
season, were not without their entertainments : whippoorwills sang in the 
trees, and wherever a spot of open meadow appeared, the whole air was 
in a glow with the sparkle of fire-flies. 

A considerable lustre was thrown upon the town-plot by its being the 
residence of the Hon. Samuel Huntington, Governor of the State. He 
was not a native of the town, but had early settled in the place as an 
attorney. His wife was a daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, of 
Windham : a lady without any pretensions to style or fashion, but amiable 
and discreet. It was long remembered that in a white short gown, stuff 
})etticoat, a clean muslin apron, and nicely starched cap, she w^ould take 
her knitting and go out by two o'clock in the afternoon to take tea uncere- 
moniously with some respectable neighbor, perhaps the butcher's or black- 
smith's wife. But this was early in her married life, before Mr. Hunt- 
ington was President of Congress, or Governor of Connecticut. These 
offices made a higher style of housekeeping appropriate, and in later days 
the movements of Mrs. Huntington in leaving town or returning home 
became matters of public notoriety, and she was saluted whenever she 
appeared in public, with ceremonious courtesy.* After the Revolution, 
the Governor built a new house, elegant and spacious, and lived in quiet 
dignity. 

This worthy couple had no children of their own, but children always 
gathered around them. Though he was wise and sedate, and she quiet 
and thrifty, yet lurking beneath a grave exterior, both had large hearts 
and that sunny benevolence of disposition that attracts the young, and 
delights in the interchange of favors with them, giving care and counsel, 
for cheer and fervid feeling. 

Before the Revolutionary war, Mr. Huntington had generally some two 
or three young law-students with him ; his nephew, Nathaniel Hunting- 
ton, and the beautiful Betsey Devotion,t the belle of Windham, also 

* From the Norwich Packet, Dec. 21, 1779 : 

" On Wednesday last, set off from this place for the city of Philadelphia, the lady 
of Samuel Huntington, Esq., President of Congress. She was escorted out of town 
by a number of ladies and gentlemen of the first character." 

t A younger sister of Mrs. Huntington, and not her niece, as stated in the former 
history of Norwich. The two young persons mentioned, died young. In a Life of 
Aaron Burr, (not Parton's,) Vol. I., a letter is quoted, written from Norwich by Jon- 
athan Bellamy, one of the young men who studied law with Mr. Huntington, in which 
the writer alludes to tlie void made in their pleasant circle by the death of Natty Hunt- 
ington. The Norwich Packet of Dec. 8, 1774, speaks of him also as a great loss to 
the community, and adds, " a great concourse of people attended his obsequies." He 
was in his 24th year. Elizabeth Devotion, Mrs. Huntington's sister, died March 8, 
1775, aged 23. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 517 

spent much of their time in liis family ; the house therefore naturally 
became the center of attraction to the young and happy of that joyous 
neighborhood. 

After the social chat and merry game of the parlor had taken their 
turn, they would frequently repair to the kitchen, and dance away till the 
oak floor shone under their feet, and the pewter quivered upon the di*es- 
sers. These pastimes, however, had little in them of the nature of a ball ; 
there were no expensive dresses, no collations, no late hours. They sel- 
dom lasted beyond nine o'clock. .According to the good old custom of 
Norwich, the ringing of the bell at that hour broke up all meetings, dis- 
persed all parties, put an end to all discussions, and sent all visitors quietly 
to their homes and their beds. 

Governor Huntington was born at Windham, July 3, 1731. His father, 
Nathaniel Huntington, was by trade both a fai-mer and a clothier. He 
gave a libex-al education to three of his sons, who devoted themselves to 
the Christian ministry ; but Samuel, being designed for a mechanic, was 
apprenticed to a cooper, and fully served out his time. 

Roger Wolcott, the chief-justice, Samuel Huntington, and Roger Sher- 
man, three of Connecticut's noblemen, all began life with tilling the soil, 
or working at some mechanical art. 

Mr. Huntington's mind was naturally acute and investigating, and his 
thirst for mental improvement so great as to surmount all obstacles. From 
observation, from men, and from books, he was always collecting informa- 
tion, and he soon abandoned manual labor for study. He was self-educa- 
ted, — went to no college, attended no distinguished school, sat at the feet 
of no great master, but yet acquired a competent knowledge of law, bor- 
rowing the necessary books of Col. Jedidiah Elderkin, and was readily 
admitted to the bar. He settled in Norwich in 1760, and soon became 
useful and eminent in his profession. He frequently represented the town 
in the colonial assembly, was active in many ways as a citizen, agent for 
the town in several cases, and forwai'd in promoting public improvements. 
He was appointed King's Attorney, and afterward Assistant Judge of the 
Superior Court. In 1775, he was elected a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, and served as President of that honorable body during the ses- 
sions of 1779 and 1780. While in Congress, his seat on the bench was 
kept vacant for him, and he resumed it in 1781. He lield various other 
important offices, such as Chief Justice of the State and Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, and in 1786 was elected Governor, and annually re-elected by the 
freemen, with singular unanimity, until his death, which took place at 
Norwich, Jan. 5, 1796. 

He was honored with the degree of LL. D. both by Yale and Dart- 
mouth. 

Mrs. Huntington died June 4, 1794. After the decease of the two 



518 HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 

interesting relatives before mentioned, tliey had adopted and educated two 
children of the Governor's brother, the Rev. Joseph Huntington of Cov- 
entry. These were Samuel and Fanny Huntington, who lived with their 
revered relatives as children with parents, affectionately and happily. 
They were present to soothe their last hours, to close their dying eyes, and 
to place their remains in the tomb. 

The daughter married the Rev. E. D. Griflan, President of Williams- 
town College : the son removed to Ohio, and served that State in various 
important offices. 

Governor Huntington preserved to the last those habits of simplicity 
with which he began life. In the published journal of the Marquis de 
Chastellux, he speaks of Mr. Huntington, who was then President of 
Congress, with marked respect. The Marquis was a Major-General in 
the French army that came to our assistance. While at Philadelphia, in 
December, 1780, he called upon Mr. Huntington, in company with the 
French ambassador, and observes, "We found him in his cabinet, lighted 
by a single candle. This simplicity reminded me of Fabricius and the 
Philopemens." At another time he dined with him, in company with 
several other French gentlemen of distinction, and adds : "Mrs. Hunting- 
ton, a good-looking, lusty woman, but not young, did the honors of the 
table, that is to say, helped every body, without saying a word." This 
silence must surely be attributed to ignorance of the language of the gay 
cavaliers, and not to any deficiency of good manners or conversational 
power. 

Mr. Huntington was of the middle size, dignified in his manners, even 
to formality ; reserved in popular intercourse, but in the domestic circle 
pleasing and communicative ; his complexion swarthy, his eye vivid and 
penetrating. One who was long an inmate of his family, said: "I never 
heard a frivolous observation from him ; his conversation ever turned to 
something of a practical nature ; he was moderate and circumspect in all 
his movements, and delivered his sentiments in few but weighty words." 

He was eminently a religious man : as ready to officiate at a conference 
meeting, or to make a prayer and read the Scriptures when called upon 
in a public assembly, or to breathe counsel and consolation by the bedside 
of the dying, as to plead before a judge, or to preside in Congress. 

This sketch can not be better concluded, than with the earnest wish 
breathed by a contemporary panegyrist, — " May Connecticut never want 
a man of equal worth to preside in her councils, guard her interests, and 
diffuse prosperity through her towns." 

Elisha Hyde, Roger Griswold and Asa Spalding were at this tune 
prominent men in the community, as attorneys and public officers. Nor- 
wich never had a trio of barristers more able and more varied in their 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 619 

characteristics : Griswold, keen and impetuous ; Spalding, cool and plain- 
spoken even to bluntness ; and Hyde, witty, conciliating, and popular. 

A considerable branch of the business of the day was the sale and pur- 
chase of public securities. They were in good demand, and coin was 
freely offered for them. These securities consisted of bounty lands, mil- 
itary rights, indents, continental certificates, loan-office certificates, final 
settlements, state notes, soldier notes, pay-table orders, and various other 
pledges that had supplied the place of money during the war. 

Roger Griswold settled in Norwich when first admitted to the 1)ar in 
1783, and soon acquired distinction as an able advocate and vigilant pub- 
lic officer, quick and efficient in carrying out the laws, and rigid in exact- 
ing obedience. After his marriage, he purchased the dwelling-house on 
the Green, vacated by Dudley Woodbi'idge upon his removal to the West, 
and made it his residence until he left Norwich and returned to his native 
town, Lyme, which was in 1798.* 

It is an interesting fact that he came back to Norwich to die. He was 
elected Governor of Connecticut in May, 1811, and reelected the suc- 
ceeding year. For several years he had been afflicted with a disease of 
the heart, which at intervals caused him great suffering. It increased so 
rapidly, that in the summer of 1812, he was removed to Norwich, that he 
might try the effect of a change of air, and at the same time have the 
benefit of advice from Dr. Tracy, in whose skill as a physician he had 
great confidence. But neither air nor medicine could do more for him 
than alleviate the paroxysms of his distress, and he died Oct. 25, 1812, 
aged 50. 

Asa Spalding was born in Canterbury in 1757 ; graduated at Yale in 
1779 ; studied law with Judge Adams of Litchfield, and settled in Nor- 
wich as an attorney in 1782. He was without patrimony or any special 
patronage, but by the force of native ability, sound judgment, and integ- 
rity, he acquired an extensive law practice, sustained various offices of 
trust and honor, and by diligence, accompanied with strict economy in his 
domestic affau-s, amassed a handsome property. At the time of his death 
in 1811, he was reckoned one of the richest men in the eastern part of 
Connecticut. 

Yet it was then no easy matter to grow rich in the practice of the law. 
The price for managing a case before the common pleas varied only from 
six to thirty shillings, and before the superior court from six to fifty-four 
shillinfrs. 



* Gov. Griswold married, Oct. 21, 1788, Fanny, daughter of Col. Zabdiel Rogers. 
She survived hira 51 years, and died at Blackhall, Lyme, Dec. 26, 18G3, aged 96 years 
and 9 montlis. 



520 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

His brother, the late Judge Luther Spaldmg, about ten years the junior 
of Asa, settled at Norwich in the practice of the law, in 1797. A third 
brother, Dr. Rufus Spalding, a physician who had been for many years in 
practice at Nantucket, also removed to Norwich in 1812,* and the tlu'ee 
brothers repose in the same burial-ground. 

Dr. Joshua Lathrop died in 1807, at the age of 84. He was the last 
in Norwich of the ancient race of gentlemen that woi'e a white wig. This, 
with the three-cornered hat, the glittering buckles at his knees and in his 
shoes, the Spotless ruffles in his bosom, and the gold-headed cane, made 
him an object of admiring wonder to young eyes from whose vision such 
a costume was passing away. 

Mrs. Lathrop was a daughter of the Rev. Nathaniel Eells of Stoning- 
ton. She died .July 7, 1833, in her 91st year. Original portraits of this 
couple, painted in 1774, when one was fifty and the other thirty years of 
age, are preserved by their descendants. 

The partners and successors of Dr. Lathrop were his nephews and sons, 
and the nephew of his wife, Gushing Eells : the firm changing from Daniel 
& Joshua Lathrop, to Lathrop & Coit, Coit & Lathrop, Lathrop & Eells. 
Under this firm the business was transferred to the Landing. 

Aaron Cleveland was born at East Haddam, Feb. 3, 1744, but spent 
all the central and most active part of his life in Norwich. It has been 
claimed for him that he was the first writer in Connecticut to call in ques- 
tion the lawfulness of slavery and to argue against it, — a distinction to 
which he seems to have been justly entitled. Several pointed articles on 
this subject, that appeared in the columns of the Norwich Packet, are 
supposed to have come from his pen. In 1775, he published a poem 
against slavery. In 1779, while a representative of the town, he intro- 
duced into the Legislature a bill for its abolition. He was probably sent 
to the Assembly for this very purpose, as the popular sentiment was then 
in favor of immediate emancipation. 

Mr. Cleveland afterward became a Congregational minister, and was 
settled for a short time at Brampton, Vt., but was dismissed in 1803, and 
after that time never settled, but was occupied in supplying vacant pulpits. 
He died at New Haven, Sept. 21, 1815. 

His first wife and two young children were interred at Norwich. His 
second wife was Elizabeth, relict of David Breed, and daughter of Jere- 
miah Clement. 

His second son, Deacon William Cleveland, after a residence of some 
years in New London and New York, returned to Norwich, and was set 

* After the death of Dr. Spalding in 1830, most of his fixmily removed to the West. 
Kufus P. Spalding, M. C. from Cleveland, Ohio, is his son. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 521 

apart to the office of deacon of the first Congregational Church, April 30, 
1812. He was a man of social, amiable temperament, and fervent piety. 
He died at Black Rock, Aug. 18, 1837, at the residence of his son-in-law, 
Lewis F. Allen. 

The Rev. Charles Cleveland, for many years the excellent city mission- 
ary of Boston, is another of the sons of Rev. A. P. Cleveland. He was 
born at Norwich, June 21, 1772, and though now (1865) 93 years of age, 
has health and energy sufficient to continue his walks of usefulness and 
visits of mercy. 

One of the daughters of Mr. Cleveland married David L. Dodge, and 
a daughter of the second wife, the youngest of his thirteen children, mar- 
ried the Rev. Samuel H. Coxe, D. D. 

William Huhhard, son of Daniel and Martha (Coit) Hubbard, was an 
inhabitant of Norwich for about twenty-five years, in business as a branch 
of the firm of Ilubbards & Greene, Boston. He married Lydia, daugh- 
ter of Joseph Coit of New London, which brought him into the relation- 
ship of nephew to Doctors Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, the mother of his 
wife being their sister. An uncommon mortality seems to have blighted 
his domestic relations. A youthful daughter died in 1770; his first wife 
in 1778 ; and soon after his return to Boston in 1788, his second wife was 
laid in the grave. His oldest son, William, died Sept. 10, 1789, aged 22, 
and a month latei', the oldest son by the second wife, aged nine years. 
The death of these half-brothers was bewailed in various elegiac verses 
printed at the time. They were buried each by the side of his mother, 
one in Norwich and the other in Boston. Joseph, a third son, died May 
25, 1790, and was also interred at Norwich in the family group. Before 
the close of the year, Dec. 28, 1790, Mr. Hubbard's oldest child, Lydia, 
the young wife of Thomas Lathrop, aged 25 years, was also laid in the 
grave. 

Mr. Hubbard's thii'd wife was a Miss Copely of Boston. He afterward 
removed to Colchester, Ct., and there died in 1801, aged 61. 

Daniel L. Coit was one of the sterling men of Norwich : intelligent, 
refined, and of spotless character. He was a native of New London, but 
at an early age was placed with his uncles, the brothers Lathroj), eminent 
druggists of Norwich, and ultimately became their partner. Alter arriv- 
ing at mature age, he went to England as agent of the company, to pur- 
chase goods, and before returning home, made a brief tour upon the con- 
tinent. He was at Paris when the first successful balloon experiment was 
made. This was the famous ascent of Messrs. Charles and Robert, Dec. 
1, 1783. Mr. Coit was present, and wrote an account of this wonderful 
event to his father in Norwich, which was published in the weekly news- 



522 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

paper, and was the first notice on tins side of tlie Atlantic, of what the 
writer calls 

"77«'5 new art of flying T 

He observes that balloons had been before dispatched into the heavens 
without navigators, but in this instance, " two men placing themselves in 
the car a"scended to the height of 500 yards and then sailed away on the 
wings of the wind to the distance of nine leagues." The writer adds, — 
" The novelty of the thing is so great that it engrosses half the talk and 
attention of the city." 

Mr. Coit was one of the original purchasers of the "Western Reserve, 
and made repeated visits to that remote and solitary region, assisting 
largely in the settlement by his advice, means, and influence. 

He was fond of agriculture, of the natural sciences, and of books. He 
died Nov. 27, 1833, in the 80th year of his age. 



At the annual election for Governor in 1786, 900 votes were given in 
Norwich for Gov. Huntington. This is not only a remarkable instance 
of home popularity, and of harmony of opinion in the eight societies, but 
it shows that the town contained a large proportion of solid men, — a cer- 
tain amount of property as well as a fair character being then an indis- 
pensable qualification of a voter. Even in the present day of almost 
unlimited elective franchise, it is rare to find a much larger proportion of 
the inhabitants of a town voters. The population of Norwich was then 
nearly 7000. In 1790, after the division of the town, the census stood 
thus : 

^ Norwich, ... - 3284 

Franklin, - - - - 1192 

Lisbon, - - - - 1076 

Bozrah, - - - - 926 

East Society, in Preston, - - 1100 



Total, - - - 7578 

This was but a slight variation from the number in 1770 ; the war of 
the Revolution and repeated emigrations having kept the stream of pop- 
ulation flowing in nearly a dead level for twenty years. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

CouRT-HousE. Masonry. Washington's Death. Prisoners from St. Do- 
mingo. First Society Affairs. Fires. Turnpikes and Railroad. 

In 1759, a vote was passed to build a new court-house, 50 feet by 26 
or 28. It was to stand near the corner of the Green, in front of the old 
one, which was then extant, though dilapidated. The building committee 
wei-e Hezekiah and Jabez Huntington and Dr. Daniel Lathrop, and the 
expense was to be liquidated by a penny rate. 

This house was completed in 1761, and placed in charge of Samuel 
Huntington, Esq., then a popular attorney of the place, afterward Presi- 
dent of the Continental Congress and Governor of the State. A cham- 
ber in the building was assigned to him for his office as town agent. 

This is the edifice still known as the old court-house, but used for many 
years past for a school. In 1793, no repairs having been made since the 
erection of the house, its ruinous condition was such as to call forth a pro- 
test from the court. Whereupon the town claimed that they wei'e not 
obliged to keep a court-house in repair for the courts, and sent a petition 
to the General Assembly, that the county should be directed to repair the 
court-house or build a new one. The dissension between the town and 
county on this subject continued for several years ; but in 1798 the house 
was thoroughly repaired and painted by the town, and a sum raised by 
subscription for removing it from its awkward station on the Green. It 
was carried across the street, and placed in its present position, where it is 
supposed to stand nearly if not precisely upon the site of Major Mason's 
original dwelling-house, erected in November, 1659. 

A house for ammunition was also built about the same time as the court- 
house, 1700. It was a square stone receptacle, standing on the declivity 
of the hill by the path that led up to the meetmg-house. Here a few 
muskets, a quantity of bullets, and about 3000 lbs. of powder were depos- 
ited, and the key committed to Mr. Huntington. 

This powder-house was blown up in the year 1784. The train was 
laid by some unknown incendiary, but being discovered half an hour 
before the explosion, it might have been easily extinguished, if any one 
could have been found sulficiently daring to attempt it. The timely dis- 



524 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

coverj, however, prevented any injury to life or limb, as all in the neigh- 
borhood were advertised of the danger, and kept out of the way. The 
concussion was violent; windows were broken, timbers loosened, roofs 
started, plastering cracked, and furniture thrown down. Where the build- 
ing stood, the ground was left entirely free of rubbish ; not even a stone 
of the foundation remained on the site, and only one of them could be 
identified afterwards, and that descended upon a roof at some distance, 
and passing through two floors, lodged in the cellar. A bag of cannister 
shot flew into the chamber window of the parsonage. The meeting-house 
was much shattered by this explosion. 



Masonry. About 1790, Freemasonry began to be popular in Norwich. 
In 1794, Somerset Lodge was constituted with great pomp. The services 
were at the meeting-house in the town-plot. Bishop Seabury preached a 
sermon in i\\Q morning, from Heb. 3:4. A grand procession was then 
formed, which passed through the town, accompanied by a band of music ; 
dinner was sei'ved in a rural bower erected upon the plain, and in the 
afternoon the lodge again proceeded to the meeting-house, and listened to 
another sermon, by the Rev. Elhanan Winchester, from Psalm 133 : 1, — 
" Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together 
in unity." 

From this spirited beginning, Masonry, though more popular at some 
periods than others, has never seriously declined. The annual festival of 
Somerset Lodge was generally graced with a public oration. In 1798, 
on the festival of St. John the Baptist, the fraternity met at Braman's 
Hotel on the Chelsea Parade, and marched in procession to the First 
Society meeting-house, where a discoui'se was delivered by the Rev. John 
Tyler, and odes and psalms were sung under the direction of Mr. Rob- 
erts, a noted chorister of that era. A public dinner and masonic toasts 
were the usual accompaniment of these festivals. 

A Franklin Chapter of R. A. M. was instituted soon after the forma- 
tion of Somerset Lodge. This also had its annual celebration. An ora- 
tion before the Chapter at the Feast of St. Andrew in 1810, by Ulysses 
Selden, was published. Mr. Selden was a young man of pleasing exte- 
rior, gay disposition, and eloquent discourse, who settled in Norwich as an 
attorney. He died after a brief practice of his profession, and was 
interred at Lyme, his native place. This oration is the chief memorial 
left of his residence in Norwich. 

The Masons in Norwich have always been creditably distinguished for 
the liberality with which they dispense their funds to aid impoverished 
brethren or their families. They have now several chapters, councils and 
encampments in the town. Uncas Hall, formerly the gathering-place of 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 525 

the Society of Odd Fellows, has recently been remodeled and dedicated to 
Masonic purposes by the fraternity of Somerset Lodge. 



Washington's death, Dec. 14, 1790, was commemorated in Norwich 
with solemn I'eligious services. On the Sabbath following, Dr. Strong 
delivered a memorial sermon. At the Landing, the Episcopal and Con- 
gregational churches were both shrouded in black, and the two congrega- 
tions united in the commemorative services. They assembled at the Epis- 
copal church, where prayers were read and a solemn dirge performed. A 
procession was then formed of both sexes, which moved with plaintive 
music and tolling bells to the Congregational church, where a discourse 
was delivered by Mr. King, from the text. How are the mighty fallen ! 

Subsequently, on the day recommended by Congress for the national 
observance, the societies again united ; the Rev. Mr. Tyler delivered an 
oration, and several original odes, hymns and lamentations were sung or 
chanted. 

The sermons of Messrs. Strong and King and the eulogy of Mr. Tyler 
were each separately published. 



In September, 1800, the U. S. ship Trumbull, Capt. Jewett, returnini^ 
from a cruise against the French, came into New London harbor with a 
prize vessel of ten guns, called La Vengeance, which had been taken near 
the port of Jacquemel in the West Indies, with 140 persons on board. 
These were delivered over to the authorities as prisoners of war, and 
seventeen of them sent to Norwich, where they remained about six 
months.* 

The terrific war of the races, French, Spaniards and Africans stru"-- 
gling for dominion, had made fearful havoc in St. Domingo, and at tliis 
period Gen. Rigaud was at the head of one party, and the African chief 
Touissaint of the other. The latter had laid siege to Jacquemel, which 
was about to surrender, and many of the inhabitants, apprehensive that 
an indiscriminate sack and slaughter would follow, fled with wliat little 
property they could carry with them, to the vessels in the liarbor for 
safety. It was one of these vessels endeavoring to reach Cuba with its 
throng of exiles, that was taken by the Trumbull. 

The prisoners were natives of St. Domingo, partly of French orio'in, 
but with a large admixture of African blood. They were mostly civil 
officers, captains of barges, merchants and their servants, and thou'»-h 
nominally of Rigaud's party, they had taken no active part in -the contest, 

♦Eighty-four were sent to Ilartforcl ; the rcniaiiuler were retaiucd iu New London. 



526 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

and might reasonably have expected that an American ship would hu- 
manely favor their flight, rather than plunder them of their goods and 
carry them into captivity. 

The prisoners sent to Norwich were treated with compassionate kind- 
ness. They had the privilege of the gaol limits, and were allowed to 
stroll from house to house. Wholesome food and comfortable winter gar- 
ments were provided for them. Dr. Philemon Tracy, who attended on 
them as their physician, apprehending that they would suffer from the 
rigors of a cold climate, made great exertions to procure their immediate 
I'elease. It was not however till March, 1801, that the Government vir- 
tually condemned their capture by ordering their free discharge and fur- 
nishing them with transportation home. 

Some of these exiles were men of education and ability. One of them 
had been a justice of the peace ; another, a young mulatto of manly and 
dignified deportment, was afterward the able and discreet President of the 
Republic of Hayti. He was then about twenty-four years of age, and 
having already attained considerable rank in the order of Freemasons, 
he was boarded while in Norwich, at the expense of the Masonic Lodge, 
in a private family. Most of his leisure time he employed in perfecting 
himself in the English language, and at his departure he cut from a piece 
of his linen, his name, marked at full length, Jean Pierre Boyer, and gave 
it to one of the young members of the family, that had assisted him in his 
lessons. " Keep this," he said, " and perhaps, some day, you may send it 
to me in a letter, and I will remember you." 

The lad lost his mark, but nearly twenty years afterward, President 
Boyer, then at the head of the Haytien Republic, made inquii'ies of cer- 
tain Norwich ship-masters respecting his former friends, and sent a hand- 
some gratuity to the two families in which he had been treated with 
special kindness.* 



On the 7th of February, 1801, the church in the town-plot (completed 
in 1770) was consumed to ashes by the torch of some unknown incendiary. 
A group of contiguous buildings, viz., the retail store of Messrs. Carew & 
Huntington, an unoccupied dwelling-house, formerly belonging to Dudley 
Woodbridge, and recently the abode of Roger Griswold, Esq., and several 
barns, sheds, and out-houses, were destroyed in the same conflagration. 
The fire was undoubtedly kindled by design, but the perpetrator was never 
discovered. 

Four years previous, — in February, 1797, — attempts had been made, 
night after night, to set fire to these same buildings, and two barns near 
them were successively destroyed. Trains had been repeatedly laid, and 

* To the widows of Consider Sterry and Diah Manning, each a donation of $400. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 527 

fires kindled, -whicli were discovered and extinguished before much damage 
was done. Mr. Breed, Major of the City, issued a proclamation, (Feb. 
7th,) offering a reward of $500 for the discovery of the culprit. A vig- 
ilant watch was also kept for some time in the vicinity of the church, and 
no further attempt was made at this point, but fires were kindled and 
barns consumed in different parts of the town. Similar attempts at arson 
occurred at intervals for three or four years, leading to the suspicion that 
they were all the work of some brooding, lurking inceudiaiy, till they 
culminated in the destruction of the church in 1801. The culprit was 
never discovered. 

It is an old remark, often proving true, that -fires are great improvers : 
they are probably borne with more philosophy on that account. A new 
church edifice was speedily erected on the old site, the expense being 
defrayed partly by subscription, and partly by a lottery granted by the 
Legislature at the May session of 1801. This church stands upon land 
belonging to the town. 

In town meeting, 12 May, 1801. " The Town grants liberty to the 1st Ecclesiastical 
Society to erect a Meeting House on the Town Common, west of the highway, near 
where the last meeting house stood that was destroyed by fire." 

The corner-stone was laid with interesting ceremonies by Gen. Ebene- 
zer Huntington, on the 18th of June. Only a few words were uttered, 
but they were of solemn import. "May the house raised on this founda- 
tion become a temple of the Lord and the dwelMng-place of the Holy 
Spirit." A throng of spectators murmured their assent, and young people 
standing above on the rocks waved their green boughs. Dr. Strong, the 
pastoz', then offered prayer. 

In the style of church architecture, this edifice displayed a great advance 
over all other churches in this part of the State. It had gi'oined arches, 
massive pillai's to support the gallery, and a central dome painted sky- 
blue ; but it retained the old forms of a high contracted pulpit and square 
pews.* 

In 1845, the interior was entirely remodeled, and since that period it 
has been a second time renovated and improved. 

In 1803, the house was surrounded with Lorabardy poplars. They 
flourished about twenty years, and kept their places ten years longer in 
gradual decay. 

In 1810, stoves were introduced. 

In 1824, the bass-viol gave place to an organ. 

The Sabbath School commenced about 1820, and was long kept in the 
court-house. The present chapel was erected in 1852, the site being a 
gift to the society from Mrs. Harriet Peck Williams. It contains a hall 

* Architect, Joseph Terry of Hartford. 



528 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

for lectures and Sabbatli Schools, and a library and study for the pastor. 
The library, though not extensive, comprises a number of ancient books 
and pamphlets of considerable rarity and value. 

In 1829, Dr. Strong applied to the society to settle a colleague with him 
in the ministry, wishing, he said, to have the same satisfaction that his 
venerable predecessor had enjoyed towards the close of his life, in behold- 
ing the church and congregation harmoniously unite in settling a successor. 
That this object might be accomplished with less inconvenience to his peo- 
ple, he voluntarily proposed to relinquish his salary after the first year. 
The society acceded to his request, and the Rev. Cornelius B. Everest, 
who had been previously settled at "Windham, was installed as his col- 
league the same year. 

Dr. Strong was born at Coventry, Ct., Sept. 21, 1753 ; was ordained at 
Norwich, March 18, 1778; and died Dec. 18, 1834, aged 81. 

The pastorates of Drs. Lord and Strong comprise 117 years, besides 
six years of joint service. This is an extraordinary instance of ministe- 
rial longevity, perhaps unequaled in the ecclesiastical annals of New 
England.* 

Mr. Everest, who, after the decease of Dr. Strong, became the sole 
pastor of the church, was dismissed in April, 1836,t and succeeded by 
Rev. Hiram P. Arms, the present pastor. 

Mr. Arms is a native of Windsor, Ct., born in 1799, graduated at Yale 
College in 1824, and was settled in the ministry successively at Hebron 
and at Wolcottville, Ct., officiating about three years in each place. He 
was installed at Norwich Aug. 3, 1836, and is now, in the length of his 
pastorate, the senior pastor of all denominations in Norwich. 

This church has a fund of $12,000. It numbers over 200 members, 
and comprises about 125 families. 



The most destructive fires in Norwich have been those in which 
churches have been consumed. That of February, 1801, which swept 
away the church of the First Society, has been noticed. Another of still 
greater extent, in which the Congregational church in Chelsea was de- 
stroyed, will be more particulaidy noticed in a subsequent chapter. 

* Instances that come near to it are the following. The successive ministries of Rev. 
Anthony Stoddard and Rev. Noah Benedict at Woodbury, Ct., amounted to 111 years, 
from 1702 to 1813. In the first parish in Yovk, Me., two ministers occupied the pulpit 
from 1700 to 1806. 

t Mr. Everest afterward held the pastoral office successively at Bloomfield and at 
Windsor, but subsequently withdrew from the Congregational ministry. " On the 3d 
of June, 1860, he received baptism by immersion at the hands of Rev. Dr. Kennard of 
Philadelphia, being at the time 71 years old." Cong. Quarterly, Vol. III., p. 264. 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 529 

The second churcli built by the Congregational Society in Chelsea fell 
a prey to the flames in 1844, being so far consumed as to render it advisa- 
ble to build a wholly new edifice. 

The Main Street Congregational Church was destroyed by fire in Sep- 
tember, 1854, having stood only irine years. 

The Baptist Church at Greeneville was burnt down Feb. 27, 1854. 

Of the other casualties by fire, two have been attended with loss ol' 
life, viz.: 

April 12, 1801. A house in the town-plot, between the dwellings of 
Col. Christopher Lefiingwell and Mr. John Bliss, occupied by Jackson 
Browne, an English gentleman, was wholly and rapidly consumed, with 
most of its contents. The flames burst forth at midnight, and when first 
discovered, the whole interior of the lower story was on fire. Several of 
the family escaped with difficulty, and one of the children perished in the 
flames. Mr. Browne's card of thanks refers to the strenuous exertions 
made by the citizens to rescue his lost child. Her funeral service was 
attended by the Rev. Mr. Tyler, who recorded the fact as follows : 

" Sophia, daughter of Jackson Browne, Esq. of the kingdom of Great Britain, and 
of Eliza his wife, between 7 and 8 years of age, who perished in the burning of the 
house eight days before : the interment was of the few bones found in the ashes April 
21, 1801."* 

The house of Mr. Andrew Griswold of Bean Hill was destroyed by 
fire Feb. 27, 1811. The weather was cold; rain was falling; the fire 
commenced in the lower story, and the members of the family reposing in 
the chambers were aroused too late to escape by the stairway. Some of 
them leaped from the windows. Miss Phebe Hunn, an infirm woman, the 
sister-in-law of Mr. Griswold, perished in the flames. 



The road between Norwich and New London, passing through the Mo- 
hegan fields, was first laid out by order of the Legislature, under the sur- 
vey and direction of Joshua Raymond, who was remunerated with a tract 
of land sufficient for a large farm upon the route. This must have been 
as early as 1 670,t but for more than a century the road was little better 

* Mr. Browne had been for several years in this country. The venerable Charles 
Miner, in sketching some scenes descriptive of that period, observes : 

"Note that dasliing gentleman and lady on the fine pair of blacks. They have a 
foreign air. It is Jackson Brown, supposed to be an agent of the British Commissary 
department. They do not stop to have a gate opened, but bound over it as if in j)ur- 
suit of a fox." Norwich Jubilee, App., 275. 

Mr. Browne's family, after they were burnt out, occupied for a short time the Teel 
house on the Parade. He soon went himself to Barbadoes, where he died in 1804. 

t Mr. Raymond died in 1676, and his son, the second Joshua, speaks of this tract of 
land as " my father's homestead fiirm in the Mohegan fields." 
34 



530 HISTORY OPNORWICH. 

than an Indian trail. Its numerous windings, fords and precipitous hills 
made it both inconvenient and hazardous. The travel was chiefly on 
horseback, or with ox-carts. 

In 1789, several prominent individuals formed an association to effect 
an improvement of this road. The Legislature granted them a lottery, 
the avails of which were to be expended in repairing so much of the road 
as ran through the Indian land. This lottery was drawn at Norwich in 
June, 1791. The next May a company was incorporated to make the 
road a turnpike and erect a toll-gate. By these various exertions the dis- 
tance was reduced to fourteen miles from the court-house on Norwich 
Green to the court-house in New London, and the traveling rendered tol- 
erably safe. The toll commenced in June, 1792 : [4-wheel carriages, 9c?.; 
2 do., i^d.; man and horse, Ic?.] 

This was the first turnpike in the United States. Dr. Dwight observes 
in his travels that this road brought the inhabitants of Norwich and New 
London more than half a day's journey nearer to each other. " Formerly 
(he says) few persons attempted to go from one of these places to the 
other and return the same day ; the journey is now easily performed in 
little more than two hours." 

This turnpike became almost immediately an important thoroughfare, of 
gi'eat service to Norwich and the towns in her rear for driving cattle and 
trans^porting produce to New London for embarkation. In 1806, it was 
extended to the landing, by a new road that began at the wharf bridge, 
and fell into the old road south of Trading Cove bridge. In 1812, an- 
other new piece of road was annexed to it, which was laid out in a direct 
line from the court-house to the old Mohegan road. 

The company was dissolved and the toll abolished July 1, 1852. 

The Norwich and Pi'ovidence post-road was made a turnpike in 1794. 

The Norwich and "Woodstock road, extending from Norwich to the 
Massachusetts line, was made a turnpike in 1801, and discontinued in 
1846, the company having made no dividends for six years. 

The turnpike from Norwich through Salem to Essex on the Connecti- 
cut river, commonly called the Essex turnpike, was established in 1827, 
and relinquished about 1860. 

The Shetucket Turnpike Company, to maintain a road through Pres- 
ton, Griswold, Voluntown, and Sterling, to the east boundary, was incor- 
porated in 1829. 

This company continued in operation more than thirty years, paying 
yearly on its capital of $11,000, a small dividend averaging 1^ per cent. 
In 1861, the franchise was surrendered to the towns of Preston, Griswold 
and Voluntown, for the sum of $1375. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 531 



Railroads. 



The railroad supersedes and destroys the turnpike. The Norwich and 
Worcester Raih'oad Company was formed in 1832 ; the Legislatures of 
Connecticut and Massachusetts each granting a charter for that portion of 
the I'oad which lay within their resi)ective States. These two companies 
were united by the said Legislatures in 1836, the whole capital amounting 
to $1,700,000. The length from the steamboat landing in Norwich to the 
depot at Worcester is fifty-eight and nine-tenth miles, eighteen of which 
is in Massachusetts. 

The first stroke of the spade on this road was at Greenevillc, Nov. 18, 
1835, and it was completed and the trains ran the whole distance in 
March, 1840. 

Just beyond Greeneville in Norwich, the road forms a curve of 1,000 
feet radius along the banks of the Shetucket, affording a fine view of the 
river, the bridge, and adjacent country. Three miles from the city, at the 
Quinebaug Falls, the company were met by an immense mass of rock 
lying across their contemplated route. Here a deep cut was channeled 
for a considerable distance through a friable rock, but reaching at length a 
bed of solid granite, a tunnel was excavated 300 feet in length and twenty 
in width. The height from the bed of the tunnel to the summit of the 
rock above is about 100 feet. Sitting in the car and gazing upon the 
scenery, you suddenly find yourself gliding into the bosom of frowning 
chffs, and enveloped in subterranean darkness. You come out slowly, 
grinding along the edge of a precipice, with the ragged, foaming, contracted 
river below you on one side, and a barrier of cliffs on the other. 

The road for many miles keeps near the Quinebaug, which has every 
where the same characteristics, chafed and noisy, the banks bold, the bed 
rocky, and the edges disfigured by boulders brought down with ice in 
spring floods, and lodged along the water course. 

The section of the road from Norwich to Jewett City in Preston, was 
the most laborious and expensive of the route. The course was winding, 
the radius short, the earth encumbered with rocks ; the contractors lost 
money, and were obliged to throw themselves upon the company. The 
tunnel alone cost nearly $30,000. 

A large depot or station-house Avas erected at Norwich, contiguous to 
the steamboat landing, two stories high, and 200 feet in length. It is sit- 
uated just at the spot where the Shetucket contracts its course, turns a 
quarter round, and glides into the Thames. Here the company purchased 
a small rocky promontory called the Point, pulled down the buildings 
which covered it, blew up the rocks, filled the shallows, and constructed 
the station-house, together with a wharf and a solid stone wall. 

During the severe flood in the spring of 1841, a bar was formed in the 



532 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

channel of the Thames, by an accumulation of sand brought down the 
Shetucket, 360 feet in length, which it was found very difficult to excavate 
so as to leave the channel of its former depth. In consequence of this 
bar, the steamboats which had before this occasionally grounded in the 
river, were now frequently delayed two or three hours upon their route. 
This obstruction, together with the serious inconvenience arising from the 
ice in the winter season, induced the company to extend their road from 
Norwich along the bank of the river, seven miles to Allen's Point, near 
Gale's Ferry. This part of the road was completed in 1843. 

By a subsequent addition to their charter, the company were allowed to 
extend their road to Long Island Sound, provided it were done before 
1856, and this term was afterward extended to 1860. But this project 
was not accomplished, and the portion of the road from Norwich port to 
Allyn's Point has since been dropped from the regular line of travel. 
The company, by contract with the N. L. & N. R. R. Co., now make use 
of their track upon the west side of the river to reach the Sound. 

Public opinion greatly favored the construction of this road, or it could 
not have been accomphshed. Twice the company obtained a loan from 
the city of $100,000, the Legislature sanctioning the act; the loan in the 
first instance being secured by 1500 shares of the stock, and in the second 
by a mortgage on the franchise and income of the road. In 1843, the 
Assembly authorized the company to issue bonds. 

The junction of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad with the New 
London, Willimantic and Palmer Railroad, (now New London and North- 
ern Railroad,) at Norwich City, was effiscted in 1853. The junction track 
passes over Yantic cove by a curve, noi'th of the wharf bridge, and from 
thence under the street leading to the bridge, and across the city wharves 
and slips to the depot near the mouth of the Shetucket. The cost of the 
right of way was about $40,000. 



A company was incorporated in 1841, for the construction of a railroad 
from Norwich to the Connecticut river, called the Norwich and Lyme 
Railroad Company.^ 

In 1851, the Norwich and Westbrook Railroad Company was incorpo- 
rated to effect the same object by a different route. 

Nothing was done by either company, beyond the forming of plans and 
making of surveys. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

Chelsea. The Parade. First Houses and Old Inhabitants. 

In 1790, Middle or Main street in Chelsea was opened at an expense 
of £100, which was paid partly by the city and partly by individual sub- 
scription. About the same time, Crescent street, the ends of which were 
at the store of Capt. Thomas Fanning and the house of Rev. Walter 
King, was greatly improved through the liberality and exertions of Capt. 
William Hubbard. 

The western avenue to Chelsea, now Washington street, was also at 
this time rectified and a new section thrown open by the adjoining land- 
holders. 

The broad plateau intersected by these streets was then known as the 
Little Plain. It seems not to have had any more distinctive name. On 
the 11th of September, 1793, the 20th regiment of infantry, Joseph Wil- 
liams, Colonel, was here reviewed, and upon this occasion it was called 
the Parade. This was probably the first regimental review at tliis place. 
The general trainings had previously been held on the Great Plain, near 
Morgan's tavern, upon the road to New London. 

Very little improvement had heretofore been made in this part of the 
town, but the period had arrived for bringing it into notice. Several 
building-lots had been purchased and houses erected upon its borders, but 
the central part of the plain lay untilled and unfenced, the owners being 
non-residents, descendants of the original grantees, John Reynolds and 
Matthew Adgate. The larger portion comprised a single field, popularly 
called "Adgate's three-square lot." 

It was certainly desirable, both as a matter of taste and convenience, 
that this area should be kept open to the public, and fortunately men of 
liberal minds stood ready to bring about this result. 

Joseph Perkins and Thomas Fanning, two of the neighboring land pro- 
prietors, apparently at their own motion and private expense, undertook 
to clear this central area of all claims and incumbrances, that it might be 
made a public square for the use of the town. This they effected, and 
having obtained quit-claim deeds of the several heirs, conveyed the fee as 
a free gift to the town. The deed of cession has the following preamble : 



534 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

"We Thomas Fanning and Joseph Perkins, both of Norwich, for and in consideration 
of the good will we have and do bear to the inhabitants of the Town of Norwich and 
in consideration of the desire we have that said inhabitants may continually and at all 
times be furnished and accommodated with a free, open, unincumbered piece of land 
or ground, convenient for a public Parade or Walk, do give, grant, remise, release and 
forever quit claim unto Doctor Joshua Lathrop, one of the principal inhabitants of said 
town, and to all the rest of the inhabitants of said Town of Norwich in their corporate 
capacity, and to their successors forever, for the use and purpose of a Public Parade or 
open Walk, to be unincumbered with any kind of building or buildings, public or pri- 
vate, or nuisance whatever, and for no other purpose. 

Dated 5th day of April, 1797. 

All honor to the generosity and enlightened foresight of those men who 
secured this great privilege to the town. They struck at the right time, 
just when the spirit of progress had reached the spot. A little later, and 
in all probability the area would have been carved into building-lots, and 
the town would never have possessed this her most graceful ornament. 
Without this central plain, Norwich would seem deprived of half her 
beauty. 

This public square has hitherto had no established name. The prevail- 
ing idea in the minds of the grantees seems to have been that of provid- 
■ ing an open space for military exercises. Its earliest designation was 
J therefore the Parade. Col. Elisha Edgerton's regiment of cavalry was 
\ reviewed on the Parade, Sept. 4, 1798. But of late years it has acquired 
more of the character of a park, and from the long residence — more than 
half a century — of Gen. Wm. "Williams upon its border, it has obtained 
the current and acceptable name of Williams Park.* 

In 1801, the rage for setting out Lombardy poplars ran through the 
town like an epidemic. The quivering, silver-lined poplar, — the slender, 
quick-growing poplar, — was in high repute for convenience, use, ornament 
and health. The parade received a full share of the general adornment, 
and was entirely girdled with poplars. These Italian shades are however 
short-lived in our climate, and the first growth has been seldom renewed. 
Here, as in most parts of the country, they soon gave place to the more 
hardy and umbrageous natives of the forest. The elms and maples that* 
now gird the park were set out since 1820. • 



First Houses and other Improvements. 

1. A house on the border of the Parade, known of late years as the 
residence of Capt. AValter Lester, was built by Joseph Carpenter, but left 
unfinished at his death in 1797. 

* In September, 1811, Gen. Wm. Williams, then Lieut. Colonel of the third regi- 
ment of militia, held '^''s regimental review upon this parade. 




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HISTORY OF NORWICH. 535 

2. On the north-east side a dwelling-house was erected about the year 
1785, by Capt. Henry Billings. It was the first house of any note upon 
the Plain, and was successively occupied by Capt. Billings, by Ebenezer 
Backus, and by the relici of the latter, with her second husband, A. S. 
Destouches, a French emigrant. In 1799 it was purchased by ]\Iajor 
Rogers, a merchant from Southara[)ton, L. I., and very soon afterward we 
find an assortment of goods advertised for sale by " Uriah Rogers & Son, 
at their New Store on the pleasant plains of Chelsea, half a mile from 
Norwich port." 

Major Rogers died in 1814, and this house afterwards became the resi- 
dence of Rev. Alfred Mitchell, to whose fine taste and devout mind the 
woodland heights in the rear had a peculiar charm. They were his walk, 
his study, and his oratory. After Mr. Mitchell's decease, the place was 
for eight or ten years the seat of Mr. Charles Abbot's Family School for 
Boys. The house has since been removed to a different part of the town, 
and the site is occupied by one of the tasteful and costly mansions of 
modern times. 

3. A house very nearly coeval with that of Capt. Billings, on the 
south-west side of the Plain, was built by Major Ebenezer Whiting, about 
1790, and sold in 1795 to Capt. Daniel Dunham. The ground plot 
included the ancient Indian Cemetery, and sixteen acres of land running 
down to the neighborhood of Lathrop's Mills, where Major Whiting had 
a distillery. In preparing for the foundation of this house, a gigantic 
Indian skeleton was exhumed, and many rude stone tools and arrow-heads 
thrown up. The place was afterward purchased by Calvin Goddard, and 
remained for nearly forty years in the possession of the family.* 

4. The brick-house, or Williams mansion, was built in 1789 and '90, 
by Joseph Teel of Preston, the site being a portion of the original Adgate 
lot. It was designed for a hotel, and immediately advertised as 

"7%e Teel House, sign of General Washington" 

It was noted for its fine hall or assembly-room, where shows were ex- 
hibited, and balls, lodges and clubs accommodated.! After Mr. Teel's 
death, the hotel was continued by his son-in-law, Cyrus Bramin, and when 
offered for sale in 1797, it was particularly recommended for its position: 
"on the central plain between the town and Landing, which according to 
the natural appearance of things bids fair to be the seat of business for 
the town of Norwich." 

* Now the homestead of John Dunham, Esq., son of the former proprietor. 

t An advertisement of May 29, 1794, announces tlie arrival at Mr. Ted's assembly- 
room of a party of Italian rope-dancers and tumblers, and the public are invited to 
call and sec Don Peter and Clumsy the Clown dance a horn-i)ipc blindfold over fifteen 
eggs. 



536 HISTORYOFNORWICH. 

In June, 1800, the hotel was transformed into a boarding and day- 
school under the preceptorship of William Woodbridge. After some 
other changes, it was purchased in 1806 by Carder Hazard, a retired 
merchant from Newport, by whom it was sold in 1813 to its present 
owner. 

5. On the avenue leading from the east side of the Parade to the 
Landing, Chi-istopher Leffingwell, Joshua Lathrop and Joseph Perkins 
were considerable landholders, and each contributed toward opeijing and 
embellishing the street, freely relinquishing the land necessary for the 
public convenience. Col. Leffingwell planted the fine elms that now over- 
shadow Broadway. Here were a tier of houses built before 1800, and 
occupied at the opening of the century by Rev. "Walter King, Capt. Solo- 
mon lugraham, and Thomas Coit, (afterward by Jabez Huntington.) 
Here also were the L'Hommedieu house and rope-walk, and the twin 
houses of Hezekiah Perkins and Capt. Z. P. Burnham. This row of 
buildings had the high granite ridge that projects into the center of Chel- 
sea in their front. The triangular plot between the roads, now inclosed 
as the Little Park, was formerly called the Everett lot. It belonged to 
Col. Leffingwell, and after his death, was purchased jointly by Hezekiah 
Perkins and Jabez Huntington, and in 1811 presented by them to the 
city, on condition that it should be inclosed and used only as a park. 

6. The residence of Thomas Mumford, embowered by lai'ge trees, with 
a spacious garden and several vacant lots on the south and east, compris- 
ing in all eight acres, occupied the plot at the head of Union street. Mr. 
Mumford died Aug. 30, 1799, and the place passed into the possession of 
Levi Huntington. The street forming a continuation of Broadway was 
opened in 1800 by Christopher Leffingwell and the heirs of Mumford. 

7. The house which has been for nearly sixty years the residence of 
Joseph Williams, Esq., was built before 1800, by Capt. Samuel Freeman, 
and sold six years later to its present owner. 

On leaving the Plain and turning the steep pitch of the hill, in the 
lower part of Union street, were the dwellings of Jeremiah Wilber, Lem- 
uel AVarren, Israel Everit, and Christopher Vaill. 

These comprise all the householders that have been traced in this part 
of the town, at or near the beginning of the century. From that time 
forward, improvements ceased for many years. The next houses built in 
this quarter were those of Major Joseph Perkins and Russell Hubbard. 
The former, a solid stone mansion, was completed in 1825, Mr. Hubbard's 
the succeeding year. 

A costly dwelling-house, combining various elements of beauty in 
structure, situation, and prospect, was erected by Charles Rockwell in 
1833, on the height between Broadway and Washington streets. This 
was one of the first experiments in grading and cultivating this rugged 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 537 

woodland ridge.* Many other beautiful seats, with choice gardens and 
groves, have risen since that period to adorn this part of the town. 

A considerable portion of Washington street was originally opened 
through land belonging to Col. Simon Lathrop, and here on the river side 
of the street a house was built in 1780 by Elijah Lathrop. 

In 17*95, Samuel Woodbridge purchased one of the Lathrop lots, and 
erected a dwelling-house in what was then considered a wild and secluded 
spot, but exceedingly beautiful in situation. A contemporary notice speaks 
of it as " an excellent place for rural retirement." This property was 
purchased in 1811 by Richard Adams, Esq., a gentleman from Esse- 
quibo, and has been known for the last fifty years as the residence of his 
family.f 

The next house that made its appearance in this part of Washington 
street was erected by Tlieodore Barrell, an Englishman who had been in 
business at Barbadoes, and had several times visted Norwich for commer- 
cial purposes. He brought his family to the place in 1808, purchased a 
lot of the heirs of liufus Lathrop, built upon it and continued his inhab- 
itancy till 1824, when he sold his house and grounds to Wm. P. Greene, 
and removed to New London. 

In the year 1809, the Lathrop house (built in 1780) was purchased by 
Mr. John Vernett, who had it removed to a position lower down on the 
same street, where it now stands.f On the site left vacant by the removed 
building, Mr. Vernett caused a new dwelling-house to be erected, at a 
cost and in a style of elegance beyond what had been previously exhibited 
in Norwich. The area purchased by him consisted of twenty-five acres, 
comprising six or eight choice building-lots. The land bordering on the 
Yantic in this vicinity still retains its native luxuriance, its varied surface 
and woodland beauty. A scientific or collegiate institution might here 
have found a well-adapted and beautiful site.§ 

Mr. Vernett was a native of Sarsbourg on the Rhine. Having acquired 
a handsome fortune by trade at St. Pierre, he designed to withdraw from 
business and spend the remainder of his life in retired leisure at Norwich. 
Scarcely were his family settled in their new residence, when he met with 
sudden embari-assments and losses which entirely deranged his plans, and 
he sold the place in 1811 to Benjamin Lee of Cambridge. 

* Sold by Mr. Rockwell to Capt. James L. Day, and purchased of the latter in 
1862, by John F. Slater, Esq., who has in part remodeled the house and greatly im- 
proved the grounds. 

t Mr. Adams had been here at school in his youth, and doubtless pleasant reminis- 
cences of the place led him to select it as the future home of his family. 

X Eesidence of late Lyman Brewer, Esq. 

^ The elegant mansion of Wm. II. Law, Esq., now occupies a choice and prominent 
position in this valuable Vernett purchase. 



538 HISTORY OP NORWICH, 

These were the first noted houses of Washington street. They sprang 
up after a prosperous period of trade, to which the war with Great Britain 
in 1812 gave a crushing blow, and no others were built for twenty years. 
The next that appeared was that of William C. Gilman, completed in 
1831. 

Washington street is now skirted on either side with elegant and even 
princely mansions of more recent origin, exceedingly varied in position 
and style of architecture, but all indicative of taste, wealth, and home 
comfort. 

The Breed family residence near the corner of Washington, Main and 
Church streets, is probably the most ancient house now remaining in 
Chelsea. It was built by Gershom Breed about the year 1760. 

Church street was at first known as Upper or Third street. It was 
laid out along the steep side-hill, with the whole rocky height, — the ele- 
phantine granite back of Chelsea, crowned with woods, — towering in its 
rear. In 1800, the principal residents on this street were Shubael Breed, 
collector of U. S. revenue during the administration of the first President 
Adams, Nathaniel Peabody, Rev. John Tyler, and Dr. Lemuel Boswell. 
Capt. Benajah Leffingwell occupied the three-story house opposite Breed's 
corner, and there died Sept. 27, 1804. The next house to the westward 
was that of Capt. Oliver Fitch. 

The principal householders in West Chelsea were Elijah Herrick, Jed- 
idiah Willet, Dewey Bromley, Thomas Gavitt, Septimus Clark, Stephen 
Story, and Luther Edgerton. These men were all engaged in ship-build- 
ing, or in some of "the crafts connected with that business. A rope-walk, 
established by the Rowlands in 1797, (owned of late years by John Breed 
& Co.,) has now been for nearly seventy years a conspicuous object upon 
the hill-side. • 

The Baptist meeting-house was raised in 1801. 

The low brick building at the corner of Main and Union streets has the 
reputation of being the first brick edifice constructed in Norwich. It is 
not known when or by whom it was built. According to current tradition, 
it was occupied as a public house before the opening of the Revolutionary 
war, and at one time had the honor of entertaining and lodging Genei'al 
Washington and several officers of his staff. This was probably the night 
of the 30th of June, 1775,* at which time Washington was on his way to 

. * It is probable that to this particular night spent at Norwich, Elisha Ayers, the 
wandering school-master from Preston, referred in a brief interview that he had with 
Washington at Mount Vernon, in 1788. The General was standing by his horse, pre- 
pared to ride to another part of his estate, when the traveler arrived. The details of 
the interview are given by the latter with amusing simplicity : 

" He enquired my name and what part of Connecticut I was from. I told him about 
seven miles east of Norwich City and near Preston village. I know where Norwich is, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 539 

assume the command of the American army in the neighborhood of Bos- 
ton. He arrived at Cambridge July 2d. 

The bi'ick corner was afterwards famous as an auction stand. John 
Richards, auctioneer, occupied the premises from 1800 onward for sev- 
eral years. It is still a low, square, flat-roofed building, as at first, — a 
cramped and homely structure, compared with its younger neighbors, but 
respected as one of the antiquities of the city. 

Another old hotel stood in "Water street, nearly in the rear of the Mer- 
chant's Bank, with its upper story on a level with Main street. Reuben 
Willoughby left the stand in 1804, for a new hotel in Shetucket street, 
since called the American House. Ralph Bolles was his successor in 
Water street, but removed in 1809 to the house built by Mr. Levi Hunt- 
ington, after the fire of 1793, which he opened as the Chelsea Coffee 
House. This hotel was then situated in a breezy plot, open to the water, 
a sloping lawn in front graced with a row of poplars, and a garden en- 
riched with fruit-trees. The house is yet extant, but time-worn, con- 
tracted, and defaced, its grounds transformed to streets, and high brick 
buildings overshadowing it on every side. 

The Merchant's Hotel in Main street was built in 1797, by an associa- 
tion of business men, and in style and accommodation was far superior to 
any previous hotel in Norwich. Newcomb Kinney, one of the proprie- 
tors, was for many years the well-known and popular landlord. 

In the early part of the century. East Chelsea, or Swallow-all, was 
noted as the hive of sea-captains. There was then no road to the river, 
nor to the present Greeneville ; all the land in that direction lay in rough 
pasturage. East Main street was narrow and crooked. Wells, fences, 
gardens, shops and dwelling-houses projected far into the present street. 
The whole district was rugged with rocks and water-courses, fi-owned on 
by circumjacent hills and washed by frequent floods. Franklin street was 
the road to Lisbon. Here were the dwellings of Capts. Christopher Cul- 
ver, Charles Rockwell, James N. Brown, John Sangar, and Seth Harding, 
— the latter usually called Commodore Harding. Other inhabitants were 
Jonathan Frisbie, Seabury Brewster, Judah Hart, Ezra Backus, Joseph 
Powers, and Timothy Fillmore. 

A few of the old houses of this street, belonging to the last century, 

he said. I told him that I remembered the time when he and his aids staid a night at 
Norwich wlien he was on his way to the American army at Boston, and the next morn- 
ing he went east to Preston village. At Preston village you were joined by Colonel 
Samuel Mott, a man that helped to concjuer Canada from France, and there were two 
young recruiting captains for the Revolutionary war : one was Capt. Nathan Peters, 
and the other was Capt. Jeremiah Halsey. These went with you several miles on your 
journey to Boston. The General said, I remember something about it. I told him he 
went in sight of my father's house two miles nortli of Preston village. Very likely,, 
he said. The General asked if I had been to breakfast," &c. 



O-40 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

still remain, — Capt. Christopher Culver still occupies the dwelling that he 
purchased in 1800, — but the last of its venerable trees, a grand old but- 
ton-wood, the landmark of a hundred years, was cut down in 1860. 

In 1830, a great improvement was effected in East Chelsea by the 
opening of Franklin Square. In connection with this enterprise, the road 
was widened and graded, steeps were leveled, hollows filled up, fences and 
buildings removed. From this time onward, the march of improvement 
has never paused. 

The streets east of Franklin, known as East Broad street and Boswell 
avenue, leading towards the old Providence road, have a date scarcely 
reaching beyond 1850, while the plateau of streets and houses north and 
east of there is of still more recent origin, having grow* like a garden 
from a wilderness during the last six years. Previously it was a rough, 
unsightly tract, still poj)ulous with its native denizens, squirrel and wood- 
chuck, partridge and rabbit, and on this account the haunt of sportsmen. 
A slaughter-house and two or three huts stood upon its borders, and a nar- 
row, break-neck road, the old riding-way to the Shetucket, ran through it. 

In this locality a plot of 55 acres, known as the Boswell farm, and listed 
for taxation at $4,000, was purchased by Joseph G. Lamb in December, 
1858. Through his enterprise in the way of clearing, draining, blasting, 
the rugged surface was graded, streets and building-lots were laid out and 
offered to purchasers on equitable terms. In 1864 it was divided among 
nearly fifty owners, mostly artizans and laborers, and contained thirty-two 
dwelling-houses occupied by forty-four families. 

Lamb's Hill, the highest portion of this plot, is on a higher level than 
the highest church spire in the city, and offers to the eye a prospect of 
gi'eat beauty and variety. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

Schools and Academies. 

The scliools in Norwich were neither intermitted or neglected during 
the Revokitionary war. An institution of higher grade than elementary 
was sustained in the town-plot through all the distractions of the country. 
It called in many boarders from abroad, and at one period, with Mr. 
Goodrich for its principal, acquired considerable popularity. This school 
is endorsed by its committee, Andrew Huntington and Dudley Wood- 
bridge, in 1783, as furnishing instruction to "young gentlemen and ladies, 
lads and misses, in every branch of literature, viz., reading, writing, arith- 
metic, the learned languages, logic, geography, mathematics," &c. Charles 
White, teacher. 

The exhibitions of the school were commonly enlivened with scenic 
representations and interludes of music. A taste for such entertainments 
was prevalent. The young people, even after their emancipation from 
schools, would sometimes take part in theatrical representations. We 
learn from the town newspaper that in February, 1792, a select company 
of young ladies and gentlemen performed the tragedy of Gustavus and 
the Mistakes of a Night, at the court-house. 

The school-ma'am of former times, with her swanning hive of pupils, 
was an institution of which no sample remains at the present day. She 
was a life-long incumbent, never going out of one round of performance : 
always teaching little girls and boys to sit up straight and treat their elders 
with respect ; to conquer the spelling-book, repeat the catechism, never 
throw stones, never tell a lie ; the boys to write copies, and the gh-ls to 
work samplers. If they sought higher education than this, they passed 
out of her domain into finishing schools. Almost every neighborhood had 
its school-ma'am, and the memory is still fresh of Miss Sally Smith at the 
Landing and Miss Molly Grover of the Town-plot. 

Dancing-schools were peculiarly nomadic in their character ; the in- 
structor (generally a Frenchman) circulating through a wide district and 
giving lessons for a few weeks at particular points. Reels, jigs and con- 
tra-danccs were most in vogue : the hornpipe and rigadoon were attempted 
by only a select few ; cotillions were growing in favor ; the minuet much 



542 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

admired. In October, 1787, Griffith's dancing-school was opened at the 
house of Mrs. Billings in the town-plot. He taught five different minuets, 
one of them a duo, and another a cotillion-minuet. His lessons were given 
in the morning, with a scholar's ball once a fortnight. 

Ten years later, J. C. Devereux was a popular teacher of the dance. 
He had large classes for several seasons at the court-house, and at Kin- 
ney's hotel in Chelsea. 

In 1799, a school for young ladies was opened in the house of Major 
Whiting upon the Little Plain, by Mrs. Brooks, who devoted herself 
especially to feminine accomplishments, such as tambour, embroidery, 
painting in water-colors, instrumental music, and the French language. 
She had at first a large number of pupils from this and the neighboring 
towns, but the attendance soon declined, and the school was relinquished. 
In general the young ladies at such schools only remained long enough to 
practice a few tunes on the guitar, to tambour a muslin shawl and apron, 
or embroider a scripture scene, and this gave the finishing stroke to their 
education. 

It was common then, as it is now, for parents with liberal means to send 
both their sons and daughters from home to obtain greater educational 
advantages. Young ladies from Norwich oftefi went to Boston to finish 
their education, and now and then one was placed under the guardian care 
and instruction of the Moravian sisterhood in their seminary at Bethle- 
hem, Penn. 

In 1782, an academical association was formed in the western part of 
the town-plot, consisting of forty-one subscribers and one hundred shares 
or rights. The old meeting-house of the Separatists was purchased and 
repaired for the use of this institution. The first principal was Samuel 
Austin, and the range of studies included Latin and Greek, navigation 
and the mathematics. Two popular school-books then just issued were 
introduced by Mr. Austin into this school, — Webster's Grammatical Insti- 
tutes, and Geography made easy by Jedidiah Morse. Mr. Morse was 
himself subsequently a teacher in this institution, which was continued 
with var5ang degrees of prosperity for thirty years or more. 

Alexander Macdonald, author of a school-book called the Youth's As- 
sistant, was one of its teachers. He died May 4, 1792, aged 40. New- 
comb Kinney was at one time the principal, and had for his usher, John 
Russ of Hartford, afterward member of Congress from 1819 to 1823. 
In 1800, Sebastian C. Cabot was the chief instructor. This school was 
kept in operation about thirty years. After it ceased, the lower part of 
the building was occupied by the public school, and the upper part, being 
suitably prepared, was in use for nearly twenty years as a Methodist 
chapel. 

Dr. Daniel Lathrop, who died in 1782, left a legacy of £500 to the 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 543 

town for the support of a free grammar school, upon certain" conditions, 
one of which was that the school should be kept during eleven months of 
each year.* A school upon this foundation was opened in 1787, and con- 
tinued for about fifty years. The brick school-house upon the green was 
built for its accommodation. Its first teacher was Ebenezer Punderson.t 
But the most noted of its preceptors and the one who longest held his 
place, was Mr. William Baldwin ; an excellent instructor, faithful and apt 
to teach, but a rigid disciplinarian, and consequently more respected than 
beloved by his pupils, until after life led them to reverse the decisions of 
earlier days. The young have seldom judgment and generosity sufiicient 
to make them love those who control them for their good. 

In 1843, the Lathrop donation was relinquished, with the consent of 
the Legislature, to the heirs-at-law of Thomas Coit, a nephew of Dr. 
Lathrop, to whom by the provision of the testator's will, it was in such 
case to revert. The investment had depreciated in value, and the restric- 
tions with which the legacy was incumbered made it, in the advanced 
state of educational institutions, more of a hindrance than a help. The 
school had been for many years a great advantage to the town, but having 
accomplished its mission, it quietly ceased to be. 

Evening schools of short duration, devoted to some special study, were 
not uncommon. The object was usually of a practical nature, and the 
students above childhood. The evening school of Consider Sterry, in 
1798, covered, according to his program, the following range of infitruc- 
tion : 

" Book-keeping in the Italian, American and English methods, mathematics, sur- 
veying and plotting of lands ; price Is. Gd. per week. 

" Navigation and the method of finding longitude by lunar observations and latitude 
by the sun's altitude, one dollar for the complete knowledge." 

Few men are gifted by nature with such an aptitude for scientific re- 
search as Consider Sterry. His attainments were all self-acquired under 
gi-eat disadvantages. Besides a work on lunar observations, he and his 
brother prepared an arithmetic for schools, and in company with Nathan 
Daboll, another self-taught scientific genius, he arranged and edited a 
system of practical navigation, entitled "The Seaman's Universal Daily 
Assistant," a w^ork of nearly three hundred pages. He also published 



* Dr. Daniel Lathrop left also a legacy of five hundred pounds to Yale College, 
without any restrictions. 

t If tills Ebenezer Punderson, who in 1787 was the accepted teacher of the Lathrop 
school, was, as is most probable, the teacher of that name who in 1776 was arrested 
for drinking tea and afterward had his property confiscated as a toiy, it shows that 
party prejudices must have died away very soon after the war. 



544 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

several small treatises, wrote political articles for the papers, and took a 
profound interest in freemasonry. 

In June, 1800, a school was inaugurated at the brick house on the Lit- 
tle Plain, with Mr. William Woodbridge for the principal. The assembly 
room was fitted up with desks and benches for an academical hall ; both 
sexes were admitted, and the whole was under the supervision of a board 
of four citizens, — 

Joseph Howland, Thomas Fanning, 

Samuel "Woodbridge, Thomas Lathrop. 

But the situation was too remote from the centers of population, and 
after a trial of two or three years, this school was relinquished for want 
of patronage. 

A select school for young persons of both sexes was long sustained in 
the town-plot, but with varying tides of prosperity and decline. After a 
void of two or three years, it was revived in 1803 by Pelatiah Perit, who 
had just then graduated from Yale College, and was only eighteen years 
of age. Lydia Huntley, afterwards Mrs. Sigourney, was one of his 
pupils. 

Among other teachers of the town-plot, who were subsequently honor- 
able and noted in their several callings, the following are well remem- 
bered : 

Daniel Haskell, President of the Vermont University. 

Henry Strong, LL. D., eminent in the law. 

John Hyde, Judge of County Court, Judge of Probate, &c. 

Dr. Peter Allen, a physician in Ohio. 

Rev. Joshua L. Williams, of Middletown. 

J. Bates Murdock, afterwards an officer of the second war with Great 
Britain. 

Phineas L. Tracy, who from 1827 to 1833 was M. C. from Genessee 
county, N. Y. 

A proprietary school was established at the Landing in 1797, by twenty- 
seven heads of families. The school-house was built on the slope of the 
hill above Church street, and the school was assembled and organized by 
the Rev. Walter King. David L. Dodge was the first regular teacher.* 

In 1802, the Rev. Thomas Williams was the preceptor. He was noted 
for his assiduous attention to the health and morals, as well as the studies 
of his pupils. He drilled them thoroughly in the Assembly's Catechism, 

* Mr. Dodge was a native of Brooklyn, Ct. He came to Norwich in 1796, and 
opened a school, boarding in the family of Aaron Cleveland, whose daughter he sub- 
sequently married. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 645 

and used with his younger classes a favorite manual called the Catechism 
of Nature.* 

Other teachers of this school were Mr. Scarborough, Ebenezer Witter, 
John Lord, (President of Dartmouth College,) George Hill, &c. But no 
one retained the office for so long a term as Dyar T. Hinckley of Wind- 
ham, a man of earnest zeal in his profession, who was master of deck and 
bench in Norwich for twenty years or more, yet never removed his family 
or obtained a regular home in the place. He was a school-master of the 
old New England type, devoted to his profession as an ulterior pursuit, 
and expending his best energies in the performance of its duties. 

Schools at that period consisted uniformly of two sessions a day, of three 
hours each, with a half-holiday on Saturday. Mr. Hinckley, in addition 
to this, had sometimes an evening or morning school, or both, of two hours 
each, for pupils not belonging to the day-school. The morning hours were 
devoted to young ladies, and from an advertisement of May, 1816, giving 
notice of a new term, we ascertain the precise time when the class assem- 
bled. "Hours frotn 5 o'clock to 7 A. J)I." 

Let no one hastily assume that this early summons would be neglected. 
Living witnesses remain to testify that it drew in a goodly number of 
young aspirants, who came out, fresh and vigorous, at sunrise or a little 
later, to pursue their studies.! 

Another institution that made its mark upon society was the Chelsea 
Grammar School, organized in 1806, but not incorporated till 1821, when 
it was impowered to hold real estate to the value of $20,000.f The 
school-house was on the side-hill opposite the Little Park, in Union street. 
This institution continued in operation, with some vacant intervals, about 

* Mr. Williams is living in 1865, at Providence, aged 86. He received a part of his 
early education in Norwich, having attended school in the town-plot ahout the year 
1792, — a pupil first of Mr. Baldwin, and afterward of Newcorab Kinney. 

t A similar school was kept by Nathan Hale at New London. In a letter from that 
place. May 2-i, 1774, after speaking of his {grammar school, he says : "In addition to 
this, I have kept during the summer, a morning school between tlie hours of five and 
Bevcn, of about 20 young ladies; for which I have received Cs. a scholar, by the quar- 
ter." Stuart's Life of Hale, p. 25. 

I The original proprietors of this Grammar School, wlio purchased the land anfi 
built the house, were 

Gurdon Bill, James Lanman, 

Z. P. Burnham, Grovcr L'llommcdieu, 

Benjamin Coit, Andrew Perkins, 

Calvin Goddard, Augustus Perkins, 

William 8. Hart, Hezckiah Perkins, 

Jabez Huntington, Dwight Kiplcy. 

Levi Huntington, Charles Rockwell, 

Walter King, Joseph Williams 

35 



546 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

forty years, securing for its patrons the benefits of an academical educa- 
tion for their children without sending them from home. Many prominent 
citizens of Norwich here received their first introduction to the classics, — 
the sons in numerous instances taking possession of seats once occupied by 
their fathers. 

No complete list of the preceptors has been obtained ; but among the 
remembered names are several that have since been distinguished in lite- 
rary and professional pursuits, — Dr. Jonathan Knight of New Haven, 
Charles Grisvvold of Lyme, .Jonathan Barnes, Wyllis Warner, Roswell C. 
Smith, Rev. Horace Bushnell, D. D., and Rev. "Wm. Adams, D. D. 

These men were all young at the time. The preceptors of most schools, 
here and elsewhere, at that period, were college graduates, accepting the 
office for a year, or at most for two or three years, between taking their 
degree and entering upon some other profession. But teachers to whom 
the vocation is but a stepping-stone to something beyond on which the 
mind is fixed, however faithful and earnest in their present duties, can 
never raise an institution to any permanent standard of excellence. It is 
well therefore that these temporary undertakings should give way to pub- 
lic schools more thoroughly systematized and conducted by persons who 
make teaching a profession. 

In Chelsea, beginning about 1825, a series of expedients for enlarging 
the bounds of knowledge aflTord pleasing evidence of the gradual expan- 
sion of intellect and enterprise. A lyceum, a circulating library, a read- 
ino- club, a society for mutual improvement, and a mechanics' association, 
wei'c successively started, and though most of them were of brief dura- 
tion, they were cheering tokens of an advance in the right path. 

Tlie Norwich Female Academy was incorporated in 1828. This institu- 
tion was greatly indebted for its origin to the persevering exertions of Mr. 
Thomas Robinson, who was the principal agent of the corporation. The 
brick hall erected for its accommodation stood on the hill facing the river, 
hif^her than any other building then on the declivity. 

Neither court-house nor jail had gained a foothold on the height, which 
was well forested, and towaixl the north surmounted by a fine prosjiect 
station, overtopping the Avoods, and known as Rockwell's Tower. The 
academy had the rugged hill for its back-ground, but on other sides the 
view was varied and extensive ; and when at recess the fair young pupils 
spread in joyous freedom over the height, often returning with wild flowers 
and oak-leaf garlands from the neighboring groves, neither poetry nor 
romance could exaggerate the interest of the scene. 

The most prosperous year of this academy was 1833, when the number 
of pupils amounted to nearly ninety, many of them boarders from other 
places. But the exposed situation of the building, and the rough, steep 
ascent by which only it could be reached, were adverse to the prosperity 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 647 

of a female academy, and it soon became extinct, — disbanded hy wintry 
blasts and icy foot-paths. 

In the meantime axe and hammer had begun their steady progress up 
the declivity. The jail was erected on the summit, and the town house on 
tlie slope of the hill. The Rev. Mr. Paddock built his house upon the 
height in 1835; other dwellings soon made their appearance ; the trees 
fell, streets were laid out, and before the academy finally ceased, the 
beautiful retirement of the hill and every shred of romance had passed 
away.* 

In the mental improvement of females, Norwich, first and last, appears 
to have taken a more than common interest. Numerous private schools 
established for their benefit, of an elevating character, though transitory 
in duration, attest the truth of this x-emark. In 1812, Misses L. Huntley 
(afterward L. H. Sigourney) and Nancy Maria Hyde opened in Ciielsea 
a select school for young ladies, which was continued however but little 
more than a year. 

In later days, Miss Jane Ingersoll of Springfield has gathered here at 
different periods interesting classes of pupils. The excellent family and 
day school of Claudius B. Webster, begun in 1845, was sustained for fif- 
teen years with undiminislied favor. But the improvement of the com- 
mon schools, and the institution of the Free Academy, which is open alike 
to both sexes and all classes of the community, offering also a wide range 
for study, supersedes in a great measure all private undertakings, or at 
least renders their establishment less imperative. 

The common or free schools of former times were mostly of a primary 
diaracter. The State excise money and the town rates, which were 
appropriated by law to educational purposes, were not devoted to gram- 
mar schools, but expended for instruction in the common branches useful 
to both sexes in every-day life. When the land belonging to Connecticut 
in the Stale of Ohio, called the Western lleserve, was sold, the proceeds 
were set apart by an act of the Legislature for a School Fund, the inter- 
est to be distributed through all the districts of the State in proportion to 
the number of children.f 

At Norwich the first school-meeting under this act was held in October, 



* One exception must be made. A plot of tlircc or four acres on the hill, belonging 
to the late Wm. S. Tyler, has been carefully sliielded from change. The old trees, the 
old paths, the old stone steps, have been allowed to remain. It was part of an original 
grant to Richard Bushnell, and has never been alienated, — descending from Benajah 
liushnell, son of Richard, to his daughter Elizabeth, who married Dea. Isaac Tracy, 
whose daughter Hannah was the wife of Rev. John Tyler, D. D. 

t Gen. Joseph Williams of Norwich was an influential member of the General Ab- 
sembly between 1792 and 1796, and it has been said tliat the first proposition to dcvota 
the proceeds of the western lands fw the support of schools, came from him. 



548 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

1796. In Chelsea the number of householders warned to attend was 
145* 

The schools established on this basis were at first chiefly of an element- 
ary character, and gathered in but few pupils from those ranks in society 
that were able to patronize the select schools. The first in Norwich of 
which any certain data has been obtained, established on the State Fund 
foundation and called distinctively the Free School, was begun at Chelsea 
in June, 1799; Rufus Robbins, preceptor. 

For many years these district schools, invaluable as they were in the 
benefits they conferred, were yet far below the highest attainable standai'd 
of usefulness. They were entirely dissociated ; each district managing its 
own school by a committee. A change of system seemed desirable. The 
subject was brought up in public meetings and freely discussed. Many 
:of the citizens took a decided stand in favor of a new organization of the 
schools. William C. Gilman was one of the prominent advocates of a 
;more complete and energetic course of instruction. 

In 1839, Greeneville took the lead in the march of improvement, con- 
Bolidating her two districts and establishing a high school without opposi- 
tion. This important change was effected chiefly through the agency of 
William H. Coit of Greeneville. 

In the other city districts the project met with strenuous opposition. 
There was a conflict of opinions and of plans, which continued, or was 
reproduced from year to year, for nearly twelve years. But at last all 
parties united in favor of reform and progress, and a change of system 
was eflected.t 

Adjoining districts were consolidated, a system of graded schools inau- 
gurated, and upwards of $50,000 expended in buildings for their accom- 
modation. These improvements were made between 1855 and 1858. A 
jiigh school was left out of the plan, this necessity being supplied by the 
establishment of the Free Academy. 

The Central School-house, a building of noble dimensions and wise 
adaptation to its uses, stands on the east side of Broadway, in an eli- 
gible and airy position. It is built of brick, with free-stone dressings ; is 
three stories high, and well supplied with furnaces and cisterns. This 
edifice is considered the finest in appearance, position, and convenience, of 
any common school-house in Connecticut. 

It was dedicated Sept. 3, 1855 ; cost $10,000. J. W. Allen, a graduate 

* The family names were 89 : of Leffingwells seven, which was the largest number of 
one name. 

\ " The erection of tliis beautiful building [Norwich Central School-house] marfe* 
the sncceBsful tennination of one of the most jirotracted and severe educational strug- 
gles ever witnessed in our State." Report of Supt. of Public Schools of Connecticut, 
for 1856. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 649 

of the "Wesleyan University, has been the Principal of this institution from 
its commencement. 

The other school-houses are also on a liberal scale. That of the Falls 
district, in Sachem street, was completed in 1856, at a cost of $10,000- 
The older structures of other districts have all been enlarged or refitted 
to render them convenient and appropriate to the graded system. 



The Free Academy. 

This establishment is a magnificent illustration of what can be accom- 
plished by enlightened forethought, persevering enterprise, and large- 
hearted liberality. It was founded, endowed, the building erected, the 
library commenced, and the apparatus furnished, by private generosity* 
Three individuals in the first instance gave over $10,000 each, and the 
whole amount, about $100,000, was subscribed by forty persons. Half of 
this sum was invested for a permanent endowment. 

The project originated with the Rev. John P. Gulliver, and to his 
unwearied exertions in collecting and disseminating information, awaken- 
ing interest, and maturing the plan of operation, owes in great measure 
its success. The object which the founders had in view was not only to 
secure a course of instruction in the higher branches, so that young per- 
sons might here be prepared to enter upon the different calUngs of life, as 
mechanics, merchants, navigators, scholars, agriculturists, or professional 
men, but as the grand result, the Academy was expected to become the 
means and instrument of elevating the standard of the common schools, 
and of bringing them into a system of gradation and harmonious co- 
operation. 

Mr. Gulliver's circular, explaining the objects of the proposed institu- 
tion and appeahng to the citizens for aid and encourag(!ment, was issued 
in 1853. The academy was incorporated in 1854, upon petition of Rus- 
sell Hubbard, William P. Greene, William A. Buckingham, William 
Williams, and other individuals, to the number of thirty-five, who were 
the original subscribers to the fund.* 

The building stands in a noble position, v/lth the park in front, and a 
picturesc^ue rang(; of hills in the rear. It is in the Norman style of arch- 
itecture, with a lofty tower, and is constructed of rough brick covered with 
mastic, and finished with free-stone dressings.! Cost, $35,000. 

* The list of donors was afterward increased to forty. 

t Evan Burdick of Norwich is the architect of tlie Free Academy, the Central School 
House, the Broadway Congregational Church, tlie Wauregan Hotel, and several other 
public buildings of the city. Many elegant private residences have also beea con- 
structed under his direction. 



550 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The site with its ample surrounding area, about seven acres in all, was 
the gift of General Williams. The back-ground is a woodland height, 
rocky and uncultured, where nature retains its original wild aspect, beau- 
tifully contrasting with the verdant lawn below. 

The library, with $5,000 funded for its increase, was presented by Mrs. 
Harriet Peck Williams, to be called the Peck Library, as a tribute of 
affectionate respect to the memory of her father, Capt. Bela Peck. Th« 
books selected for this library, as far as the purchases have been made, 
are of lasting value, consisting chiefly of the best English editions of the 
best authors. It has the Bibliotheca Classica, 145 volumes, and the Ed- 
inburg and Quarterly Reviews from their beginning. 

The apparatus was furnished by Russell Hubbard and John F. Slater, 
and several handsome contributions have been made toward the founda- 
ation of a scientific cabinet. 

In the year 1859, another agreeable and important addition was made 
to the facilities of the institution, by the generous gift of a house and 
grounds for the use of the Principal, by Mrs. Wm. P. Greene.* 

The Academy was dedicated with appropriate services, Oct. 21, 1856, 
and the course of instruction commenced soon afterward. 

This institution is entirely independent of popular control, and as an 
endowed free school, may be considered as combining the promise of per- 
manence and efficiency. The corporation supplies its own vacancies and 
elects the ti'ustees, who, during their term of office, have the entire charge 
of the institution. 

In the course of instruction it forms a link between the college and the 
common school. But as it receives scholars of either sex from all classes 
and conditions in life, it is expected to be not only a classical and scien- 
tific school, but to give attention also to practical principles and polite 
literature.f 

The first President of the Board of Trustees was Russell Hubbard, 
•who retained the office till his death in 1857, (.June 7.) 

The second President was William P. Greene, who died June 18, 1864. 

Third President, William Williams. Ebenczer Learned, Secretary and 
Treasurer from the beginning. 

The Free Academy went into operation under Mr. Elbridge Smith a^i 
Principal, who continued in office to the close of the ninth year, July, 
1865. Mr. Smith is a native of Way land, Mass., and a graduate of 

* The various donations to the Academy from Wm. P. Greene, and his wife, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Augusta Greene, amounted to !$40,000. 

t For a more definite and complete history of those educational movements in Nor- 
Trich which led to the present organization of the schools and the establishment of the 
endowed school or Free Academy, see Address of Rev. J. P. Gulliver at the Dedica- 
tion of the Academy. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 661 

Brown University. He was previously Principal of the High School at 
Cambridge, Mass. 

He was succeeded in September, 1865, by the Rev, William Hutch- 
ison, formerly Tutor in Yale College, and recently Principal of the Law- 
rence Academy at Groton, Mass. Mr. Hutchison was ordained as a 
missionary in 1858, and went to Constantinople with the expectation of 
establishing a mission in Turkey, but the failing health of his family 
obliged him to relinquish the design. 



Mr. Russell Hubbard was an early and efficient patron of the Free 
Academy, contributing about $11,000 towards its establishment. He was 
one of the trustees to manage the funds and erect buildings, and the first 
president of the board. The Hubbard Rhetorical Society, connected with 
the Academy, perpetuates his name. 

He was a descendant of Capt. Russell Hubbard, a shipping merchant 
of New London, who removed to Norwich during the Revolutionary war, 
and died at his residence near the town green in 1785, leaving two sons, 
Thomas, the well-known proprietor of the Norwich Courier, and Russell, 
a ship-master, who died at sea in 1800, unmarried.* 

Thomas Hubbard, the printer, married jMary, daughter of Amos Hal- 
lam of New London. While residing in the town-plot, he occupied what 
was called the Whiting house, (now owned by William Fitch, Esq.,) and 
here his three sons, Thomas, Russell, and Amos H., were born. He after- 
wards removed to the Landing, and there died in J 808. 

Russell Hubbard, as partner and successor of his father, published the 
Courier for twenty years. He was afterwards engaged with his brother 
in the manufacture of paper. Years of diligent attention to business led 
the way to a handsome fortune, which he dispensed with conscientious 
liberality. 



* The dau<,'htcrs of Capt. Hubbard were, Mary, wife of David Ncvins ; Martha, 
who married David Wright, an attorney of New London ; and Susannah, who mar- 
ried l8t, Ebenczcr Bushncll, and 2d, Robert Manwaring. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

The Largest Fire. Congregational Societies and Churches. 

Nov. 26, 1793, fifteen buildings were destroyed by fire in Chelsea, viz., 
the Congregational meeting-house, four dwelling-houses, six stores and 
shops, and four barns. 

This was the largest fire ever known in Norwich. It raged from six 
to ten o'clock P. M., wind fresh from the north-west. It broke out in a 
store belonging to Messrs. Hubbard & Greene, of Boston, and was sup- 
posed to have been communicated through a fissure in the chimney to 
some paper-rags piled against it. This building stood on Water street, 
nearly in the range of the present post-ofBce, and the fire swept away 
every thing combustible from thence to the junction of Main street, and 
crossing that street, consumed the large store of Levi Huntington, full of 
goods, the Congregational meeting-house,* and every building on that side 
from thence to the river, except the old Norman house, now Thames hotel. 
Even the woods over the river caught fire from the flaming cinders, and 
added to the splendor of the conflagration. The dwelling-houses of Lynde 
M'Curdy, Levi IIuntington,t and Benadam Denison, and stores occupied 
by Capt. William Coit, Coit & Lathrop, Andrew & Joseph Perkins, Hez- 
ekiah Perkins & Co., George Cleveland, and that of Levi Huntington 
before mentioned, were destroyed. Two persons were badly wounded. 

Most of the buildings were old and comparatively of small value, and 
a large portion of the goods was saved ; but there was no insurance on 
any of the property. There was at this time a fire-engine of small power 
in Norwich, which was brought out on this occasion, but the hose broke at 
the first trial, and little could be done to arrest the flames. Loss estima- 
ted at £8,000, — a small sum compared with the extent of the fire. 

Mr. King's congregation being thus deprived of a house for public wor- 
ship, assembled for three successive months in the Episcopal church, which 
was tendered to them by the trustees. A room was then fitted up for a 

* Rev. Mr. King rushed into the burning church and brought out the pulpit Bible, 
a folio edition that had been recently purchased. 

t Mr. Huntington rebuilt liis house over the old cellar : it was afterwards known as 
the BoUes tavern, and is still extant. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 553 

temporary place of worsliip, and immccliate measures were taken to build 
another meeting-house. Mr. Joseph Ilowland and Mr. Thomas Fanning, 
owners of two lots of land on the hill, opposite tlie dwellings of the Rev. 
John Tyler and Dr. Lemuel Boswell, offered these lots, together with 
£17 IO5., lawful money, in exchange for the lot on which the old meeting- 
house stood. This site was approved by the county court, and has ever 
since been the seat of the Society church. To defray the expense of 
building, a lottery to raise £850 was granted by the Legislature.* The 
Society consisted of 49 members. Joseph Williams, Lynde M'Curdy, 
Joseph Rowland, Joseph Perkins and Thomas Coit constituted the build- 
ing committee. 

The work was completed during the year 1795, and the dedication ser- 
mon preached by the pastor on Thanksgiving day, Dec. 24th. 

The dimensions of this edifice were 42 feet by 62. It was surmounted 
by a belfry and a short spire, and was painted white outside and green 
within. The pulpit was partly formed by a recess in the wall,t and the 
pews were so high that when seated, only tall persons could raise the 
head and shoulders above the sides. It remained in this style until a con- 
siderable advance had been made into the present century ; the house was 
then enlarged, and the pews changed into slips. 

Precautions were taken to secure the building against fire, and among 
other regulations, the sexton was allowed to demand a quarter of a dollar 
for every foot-stove left in the house after the meetings were ended. 

This great fire of 1793 quickened public opinion in regard to the ben- 
efits to be derived from insurance. Within twenty days after the catas- 
trophe, the inhabitants were invited by a committee, consisting of Ebene- 
zer Huntington, Joseph Perkins, Joshua Huntington and Roger Gi'iswold, 
to meet at the court-house and form an association against future calam- 
itous losses. A company was organized, chartered, and went into opera- 
tion in 1795, under the title of the "Mutual Assurance Company," for 
insuring houses and other buildings from losses by fire : the badge, Mutual 
Assurance, and the policies to run seven years. 

The characteristics of the pastor, Mr. King, were earnest piety and an 
active, glowing zeal. No personal issues could induce him to deflect a 
hair's breadth from what he considered duty. In the year 1810, a very 
serious and unhappy controversy arose in the church respecting marriage 
with a wife's sister. Were such connections sanctioned or forbidden by 
Scripture ? The pastor, taking the side of prohibition, disagreed with a 

* Donations from individuals were added to this sum. Tlioraas Shaw of New Lon- 
don gave $262, and Joseph Williams of Norwich 131, being their shares of prizes in 
tlie lottery. 

t Called in the accounts, " a scooped-out pulpit." 



554 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

majority of his flock. The subject was discussed and explained, in public 
and in private, by word of mouth, by pen and by print, till the whole con- 
gregation shared in the excitement. The harmony and affection that had 
existed between Mr. King and his people being thus interrupted, a change 
of relation became desirable. 

The next year, the pastor, church and society united in calling a coun- 
cil which met July 3d, and consisted of the ministers and delegates of nine 
churches in different parts of the State. This council sat three days, and 
voted to dissolve the connection between Mr. King and the people of his 
charge.* 

The society vote concurring in his dismission stood 32 to 19. Mr. 
King's farewell discourse was delivered Aug. 18, 1811, from the text, — 
" We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." He was sub- 
sequently settled at Williamstown, Mass., and there on the first day of 
December, 1815, while in the pulpit, engaged in the services of a sacra- 
mental lecture, the death-stroke came, and he was suddenly translated to 
a higher sphere. He was 57 years of age. 

The successor of Mr. King, Rev. Asahel Hooker, was installed Jan. 
16, 1812 ; sermon by Dr. Nott of Franklin. He was a descendant of the 
Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Hartford, and had been pre- 
viously settled at Goshen, in Litchfield county, from which place, after 
eighteen years of service, he had been dismissed on account of the utter 
prostration of his health. In Norwich he had but a brief pastorate of fif- 
teen months, — a sufficient period, however, for the hearts of his people to 
become bound to him by strong ties of personal attachment. He died 
April 19, 1813, aged 49 years. 

Rev. Alfred Mitchell, the fifth minister, was ordained Oct. 27, 1814. 
He was a son of Hon. Stephen Mix Mitchell, of Wethersfield ; graduated 
at Yale in 1809, and studied theology at Andover. His pastorate was 
eminently prosperous. Large accessions were made to the church ; 114 
being added during the last two years of his ministry, of whom 44 were 
admitted at one time, March 4, 1830. Mr. Mitchell was a man of reti- 
cent manners, but as a gospel messenger, faithful and fearless. He died 
at the age of 41, Dec. 19, 1831, uttering in submissive faith as he departed^ 
" The will of the Lord be done." 

The two last-named ministers are interred in the Chelsea burial-ground. 

* The week in which this council met was remarkable for the extreme heat of the 
weather, and the members, especially the more corpulent dignitaries, suflered severely. 
Among the members were Rev. Azel Backus of Bethlehem, Ct., and his delegate, 
David Bellamy, both men of such uncommon size that they could not sit side by side 
in the same vehicle, but each came in his one-horse-chaise, which he entirely filled. 
Mr. Bellamy was a son of the old divine of Bethlehem, and weighed, it is said, 350 
lbs. ; Dr. Backus about the same. 




R 



E\ 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 565 

From the graves where they rest, the eye can survey the scene of their 
labors, and almost count the homes of that attached people who listened 
with such deep attention to their instructions, and followed them mourning 
to their tombs. 

Rev. James T. Dickinson, a graduate of Yale College in 1826, was 
ordained April 4, 1832: sermon by Dr. Taylor of New Haven, under 
whose professional tuition the candidate had been prepared for the pulpit. 

Another large accession was made to the church in 1834, which was 
regarded as the result of a protracted meeting held by the pastor in con- 
nection with liev. Horatio N. Foote, a noted revivalist preacher. The 
whole number added to the church from 1830 to 1834 inclusive, was 284: 
229 by profession, — making, in 1835, the number of resident members, 
825 ; the society consisting at that time of about 130 families, or 600 
persons. 

After a ministry of little more than two years, Mr. Dickinson requested 
a dismission in order to prepare himself for a foreign mission, which he 
considei'ed it his duty to undertake. The church, appreciating his mo- 
tives, acquiesced in his wishes, and the separation was accomplished with- 
out any diminution of mutual esteem and affection. May 20, 1834. 

His successor at Norwich, after a considerable interval, was Rev. Alvan 
Bond, previously Pi'ofessor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Sem- 
inary at Bangor, Maine, and at an earlier date, pastor of the Congrega- 
tional Church at Sturbridge, Mass. He was installed May 6, 1835 ; ser- 
mon by Rev. Dr. Hawes of Hartford. 

Dr. Bond is a native of Sutton, Mass., born April 27, 1793. He grad- 
uated at Brown University, and has received the degree of D. D. from 
the same institution. In May, 1860, he preached at Norwich his quarter- 
centurial sermon, and in July of that year delivered a discourse, historical 
and commemorative, on the hundredth anniversary of the organization of 
the church. Near the close of 1864, on account of age and impaired 
health, he resigned his charge. His pastorate of twenty-nine years is the 
longest of this church. He still resides in Norwich under the shadow of 
the vine which has so long been fostered by his care. 

Rev. M. G, W. Dana was installed his successor, Dec. 28, 1864. Ser- 
mon by Prof. Hitchcock of Union Theological Seminary, New York. 

This society comprises about 200 families, and the church has upwards 
of 300 members. Since the installation of Mr. Dana, a parsonage has 
been built, at an expense of $10,000, which amount was raised by sub- 
scription in sums of $500 and $1000. Mr. Dana is the eighth minister 
of the society. 

In the spring of 1844, the church (built in 1795) took fire, and though 
not wholly consumed, was so much injured that the society decided not to 
attempt a reconstruction. The whole edifice was demolished, and a new 



556 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

church erected upon the same site, which was dedicated Jan. 1, 1846, — 
fifty years after the dedication of its predecessor. The society had occu- 
pied the Central Baptist Church, by an amicable arrangement with its 
proprietors, for twenty-two months. 

Two of the clergymen that assisted in the dedication of the new church 
excited a more than common interest : the Rev. Eli Smith, of the Syrian 
mission, who was on his last visit home from his important field of labor ; 
and the Rev. Dr. Nott of Franklin, then in the 9 2d year of his age. 

The material used in this building was dark blue granite from a neigh- 
boring quarry, worked rough-hewn in tiers, and the style of architecture, 
Roman; expense about $14,000. Ten years afterward it was repaired 
and improved at an additional expense of $6,000. It is the house now 
occupied by this worshiping assembly, and will accommodate an audience 
of 800. The organ was the gift of Joseph Otis, Esq. 

The Second Church was the pioneer of Sabbath Schools in this part of 
Connecticut, and has well sustained its reputation by persevering efiiciency 
in this department. The Sabbath School enterprise began in July, 1815, 
with a class of five African boys, who were collected and taught by Chas. 
F. Harrington, at his house in Franklin street, and by him induced to 
attend church. The number gradually increased, and Mr. Harrington's 
success led others to engage in similar plans. 

The next year, in July, a Sabbath School, designed chiefly to benefit 
the poor, was begun by members of the Congregational and Episcopal 
societies. The prospect was encouraging, and at a meeting held in the 
ball-room at Kinney's hotel, Oct. 11, 1816, a Union Sabbath School Society 
was regularly organized and a constitution adopted. Rev. John Tyler of 
the Episcopal Church was chosen president ; Rev. Messrs. Mitchell, Sterry 
and Bentley, vice-presidents ; George L. Perkins, seci'ctary. 

This organization comprehended the African school. The superintend- 
ents were Charles F. Harrington, Asa Roath, and Dyar T. Hinckley. 
The female department was under the supervision of Miss C. M. Marvin.* 
Three young men, Charles Rockwell, Asa Hosmer, and Leonard Perkins, 
were efficient assistants both in gathering the scholars and in teaching 
classes. 

In January, 1817, a prosperous condition of the schools was reported: 
girls, 47 ; boys, 48 ; Africans, 41. The last-named were of both sexes, 
between six and fifty-six years of age, — some of them learning to read, 
and the average attendance from twenty to thirty. 

We have no further statistics of this Union organization. It seems to 
have dropped quietly apart, leaving only the Congregationalists to con- 

* This lady was a daughter of Gen. Elihu Marvin. She married Ilev. L. F. Dim- 
mock, D. D., of Newburyport, Mass., who, after her death, published a small memo- 
rial volume in commemoration of her worth. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 567 

tinue the school, wliich being taken under the wing of the Second Church, 
assumed a permanent and definite form. In 1818, William C. Oilman 
(who had been one of the Union committee) was chosen superintendent, 
and the school since that period has been continued without interruption, 
summer and winter. 

The late Dea. Horace Colton was an early and efficient supporter of 
the Sabbath School enterprise. Col. Charles Coit was connected with the 
school for thirty years, and fourteen years its superintendent. These were 
men of practical piety, faithfully devoting themselves to the advancement 
of Christian culture.* 

Members of the Second Church have enlisted with commendable zeaJ 
in establishing Sabbath Schools in the neighboring districts, where such 
assistance is timely and important. In a rugged portion of West Chelsea 
they have erected a neat building for a school-house and mission chapel, 
(dedicated in December, 1859,) and by their labors and influence have 
assisted largely in a transformation of the district, which is significantly 
expressed in the change of name from Hard-scrabble to Mt. Pleasant. 



Pastorates of the jirst century recapitulated. 
Church organized July 24, 17 GO. 



Whitaker, 


8 


yrs. 


, 8 


mos. 


Mitchell, 17 yrs. 


2 mos. 


Vacant, 


2 


u 


6 


« 


Vacant, 


3i " 


Judson, 


7 


ii 


3 


(( 


Dickinson, 2 " 


4i « 


Vacant, 


8 


a 


5 


u 


Vacant, 


Si « 


King, 


24 


a 


3 


« 


Bond, 25 " 


H " 


Vacant, 






5 


l( 


(to July, 1860.) 




Hooker, 


1 


a 


3 


u 


Total, 100 years. 




Vacant, 


1 


u 


6 


ii 







Salaries of Ministers. 

Whitaker and Judson, £100 per annum. 

King, £125, gradually increased to $600. 

Hooker and Mitchell, $700. 

Dickinson, $1,000. 

Bond, $1,000, gradually increased to $2,000. 

Dana, $2,000. 



* Col. Coit (lied Oct. 26, 18.'),5, aj^ed 02. 

Deacon Colton removed from Hartford to Norwich in 1811, and was for fifty jeara 
in the cabinet-ware business in the plncc. He died near the close of the year 1862. 



558 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Sale of Pews. 

The first sale was in 1796. From tlience to the year 1800, they brought 
about $500 per annum. 

From 1800 to 1810, the amount ranged between $155 and $688. After 
this the increase was gradual, and in 1827 it rose to $901. The pewa 
were altered into slips in 1829, and the figures leaped at once over the 
thousand. In 1838 another thousand was reached, and since the erection 
of the present church in 1846, the average has been over $3,000. 



A third Congregational Church was formed within the limits of Chelsea 
district, Aug. 29, 1827, with ten members, and a small brick edifice erected 
for its accommodation, near the Park, on what is now Sachem street. It 
existed only twelve years, but during that time was a well-sustained, effi- 
cient church, and received 91 members by profession; 66 by letter. 

It had four ministers : 

Rev. Benson C Baldwin, installed Jan. 31, 1828. 

Rev. Charles Hyde, " Jan. 2, 1830. 

Rev. Joel W. Newton, " Oct. 29, 1834. 

Rev. Thos. K. Fessenden, ordained Oct. 16, 1839. 

The church was disbanded May 23, 1842, and the members dismissed 
to other churches. The house of worship was sold to the Methodist 

Bociety. 



The Greencvillc Congregational Church was organized Jan. 1, 1833, 
with sixteen members, and a meeting-house built the next year. It has 
the following ministerial record : 

Rev. John vStorrs, installed pastor March 12, 1834; dismissed April 
17, 1835. 

Rev. Stej)hen Crosby, elected pastor by unanimous consent early in 
1837, and otficiated as such until his decease in June, 1838, but not in- 
stalled. 

A. L. Whitman, installed Dec, 1838 ; dismissed March, 1846. 

Charles P. Bush, " " 1846; '' Jan., 1856. 

Robert P. Stanton, present pastor, installed June 11, 1856. 

Mr. Stanton had been previously settled at Cohoes, N. Y., and at Derby, 
Ct. He is a native of Belchertov/n, Mass., but in his ancestry connected 
with Groton, Ct. 

In a manufacturing district like this, a church and congregation are 
peculiarly liable to changes and fluctuations. The Grcencville church, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 559 

however, has been sustained with great uniformity ; the vacancies made 
by frequent removals being speedily filled by new-comers or by the fruits 
of revivals. When the whole village contained but 700 inhabitants, the 
Congregational church, which was then the only one in the place, had 100 
members. It has had three deacons : Samuel Mowry, chosen at the first 
organization of the church, and for several years the only one in office ; 
Oliver Woodworth, who died Feb. 7, 1865, aged 71 ; Frederick W. Gary, 
successor of Mr. Woodworth. Deacon Mowry and William H. Coit are 
the veterans of this church, — the first on its list of members, and still 
upholding its ministrations. 



A fifth Congregational Church, now ranking as the fourth in the order 
of time, and formed principally by a colony from the second, was organ- 
ized June 1, 1842, with 112 members, 98 of whom were from the Second 
Church. It stood forth at once upon a solid foundation, and has ever since 
been a strong and prosperous church. 

The meetings were held at first in the town-hall ; but a house of wor- 
ship, erected on Main street, was dedicated Oct. 1, 1845, and the associa- 
tion took the distinctive title of Main Street Congregational Church. 

llev. Willard Child was installed over the churcli Aug. 31, 1842, but 
resigned the office at the close of three years. 

Rev. John P. Gulliver was ordained pastor, Oct. 1, 184G, and under 
his efficient ministry the church has largely increased in numbers and 
influence. 

The meeting-house of this society, constructed of Chatham free-stone, 
at an expense of $14,000, was destroyed by fire, Sept. 17, 1854, after it 
had been occupied about nine years. A more eligible site was then cho- 
sen, at the corner of Broadway and Bath street, and a new church built 
of far greater capacity and convenience than the former. The founda- 
tion stone was laid in July, 1855, and the edifice completed and dedicated 
in October, 1857. A change of title became necessary, and that of Broad- 
way Congregational Church was adojjted. 

This church, the most costly and complete of any sacred edifice ever 
erected in Norwich, is G4 feet by 91, and the spire 200 feet high. It is 
built of brick, with fi-ee-stone dressings, in the Roman style o[' archi- 
tecture, and in its admirable system of ventilation is regarded as a model 
church. 

The organ, of great compass and purity of tone, was the gift of Wm. 
A. Buckingham. The Sabbath School room in the basement will seat 
450 persons, and the adjoining lecture-room 120. 

This society numbers about 200 families, and the church 300 mem- 
bers. 



660 



HISTORY OP NORWICH 



After a pastorate of nineteen years, Mr. Gulliver resigned his charge, 
in order to accept an urgent call from the New England Congregational 
Church in Chicago, and was dismissed Oct. 24, 1865. He leaves a church 
prosperous and progressive, attached to his ministry, and reluctantly con- 
senting to the separation. 

Mr. Gulliver is a native of Boston, and graduated at Yale College in 
1840. 

The year 1845 was noted for church building. Four out of the five 
Congregational churches in Norwich erected new buildings, or largely 
repaired the old ones. Christ Church was built by the Episcopal society- 
two years later. 



The number of Christian ministers of various denominations that look 
back to Norwich First Society for their birth-place, or at least for the 
home of their youth, is so large as to be worthy of special enumeration. 
The twenty-four following names belong to this class : 



William F. Arms. 

David R. Austin. 

Isaac Backus, Baptist. 

Simon Backus, of Newington. 

Henry Case. 

Frederick Charlton, Baptist. 

Charles Cleveland, of Boston. 

Richard F. Cleveland. 

Jabez Fitch, son of Rev. James. 

Daniel W. Havens. 

Henry Strong Huntington. 

John Huntingtoa, of Salem. 



Edward Hyde, Methodist. 

Charles Hyde. 

Simeon Hyde. 

James T. Hyde. 

Daniel W. Lathrop. 

Z. H. Mansfield, Episcopal, 

William Ncvins, D. D. 

Charles Porter. 

Th. S. Shipman, 

George Strong, Episcopal. 

Erastus Wentworth, D. D., Methodist. 

David Wright, Baptist. 



CHAPTER XLVL 

Wak, and after the War. 

War with Great Britain was declared by the United States June 19, 
1812. 

In May, 1813, the frigates United States and Macedonian and the 
sloop-of-war Hornet, in attempting to pass out of the Sound on a cruise, 
were driven back by an English squadron that was hovering near the 
outlet, and were forced to take refuge in New London harbor. Here 
they were blockaded by the British ships, and being still apprehensive of 
an attack from a force far superior to their own, they retired up the river, 
and on the 10th of June, passing the bar at Gale's ferry, came withia 
three miles of Norwich. Here they were partially dismantled, and laid 
up till the conclusion of the war. The seamen were sent to the lakes, 
and were all so fortunate as to pass in boats, or other small craft, safely 
through the blockading fleet, and ari-ive at their destination. 

The commerce of the Thames ceased at once. Sails were taken down, 
hulls packed together like logs, keels left to decay. The blockade of the 
river continued about two years, and was strictly enforced. It was a 
period of anxiety, depression, and gloom. The large force displayed by 
the enemy kept New London and other places on the Sound in constant 
apprehension of an assault. A British seventy-four, with an accompani- 
ment of frigates or sloops of war and smaller craft, maintained a strict 
guard at the mouth of the river, and there being no creeks or side chan- 
nels by which an entrance could be effected, it was not easy to elude their 
vigilance. The blockade was adequate and effective. Many valuable 
prizes were taken by the enemy, and in the course of a few months the 
coast was swept clean of all American craft. 

Experiments were however occasionally made, of running through the 
fleet with a fair wind, or of slipping by in the night, which were often 
successful. In 1813, the schooner O. H. Perry, 2G7 tons, built by Sam- 
uel Story, and just completed when the news came of Perry's victory on 
Lake Erie, dropped down to New London, and one night in November, 
passing by the blockading squadron, in nine hours reached New York in 
safety. But on her first voyage to St. Domingo the next spring, she was 
captured by the frigate Endymion. 
36 



562 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The privateer schooner Marmion, built by S. Clark, ran out in safety 
in March, 1814, and went to sea under Capt. Bingley. Another privateer, 
launched from Edgerton's ship-yard nearly at the same time, was equally 
fortunate in eluding the vigilance of the enemy. Escape and capture 
alternated in this game of running the blockade. Capt. John Doane, in a 
fishing vessel called The Bee, and Capt. Jonathan Lester in the sloop 
Richard, were captured during the winter of 1813-14. The sloop Three 
Brothers, Erastus Davison, in entering New London harbor, Dec. 22, was 
fired at four times by the British frigate Statira, but came safely up the 
river with a full cargo. 

The 4th of July, 1814, brought with it but little festivity. A pleasant 
incident, however, occurred at Norwich. A house on the river, near 
Bushnell's Cove, about a mile below the city, was kept as a public house, 
and called the Thames Hotel.* It was at this time rented by Capt. 
Christopher R. Perry, the father of Commodore Perry. On the day of 
jubilee, a party of gentlemen from the city had a public dinner at thia 
hotel, and just before sitting down to the table, the heroic Commodore 
himself unexpectedly arrived from the lakes on a visit to his father. 
Great was the cheering, and never were cheers bestowed more cordially. 
The joyous acclamations reached the dismantled squadron below, where 
the few officers in charge were dining on the deck of the Macedonian, 
and the river was enlivened with a succession of responsive cheers and 
salutes. 

In August, 1814, the enemy made a bold but unsuccessful attack upon 
Stonington. Had they succeeded in gaining possession of this foothold, 
there is little doubt that the stroke would have been followed by a sudden 
descent upon Norwich. There was no other place that they could hope 
to reach, which offered such temptations as this. 

Three ships of war were lying helpless in the river ; the harbor was 
crowded with dismantled merchant vessels, and the town contained a pub- 
lic arsenal for the manufacture of gun-carriages, and several valuable mills 
for the production of paper and cotton and woollen cloth. These were 
strong inducements for the enemy to make a raid into the country, and 
sweep over the city in vengeance and destruction. The situation of the 
town was therefore considered very critical, and the inhabitants were filled 
with anxiety and fear. 

A petition was forwarded to the commander-in-chief of the State troopa 
for a military force to be stationed in or near the place for its protection, 
and on the 15th of September the citizens assembled in town meeting for 
tlie special purpose of considering what should be done in the way of 
defence against the enemy. 

* Buih by Thomas Bushiiell, and after the war the residence of Capt. AppletoQ 
Meach, 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 663 

A Committee of Safety was appointed, with discretionary power, the 
members of whieli may be taken as representatives of the various inter- 
ests of the town. 

Theodore Barrell, Capt. Augustus Latlirop, 

John DcWitt, Capt. Jonathan Lester, 

Gen. Zachariah Huntington, Major Joseph Perkins, 

Charles P. Huntington, Capt. Charles Koclvwell, 

Ebenezer Hyde, Jun. Capt. Eleazar Rogers, 

Neweomb Kinney, Capt. Benjamin Snow, 

James Lanman, Col. Samuel Tyler. 
Ezra Lathrop, 

Under the direction of this committee, several volunteer companies 
were organized, equipped, and held ready for sudden emergencies. 

A regiment was about the same time drafted in Norwich and the neigh- 
boring towns, and sent to the coast to take the place of the Third Brigade, 
which had been on duty at New London and Stonington, and was now 
discharged. 

Colonel Elisha Tracy of Norwich held tlie place of deputy-commissary 
and general agent of the government during the war. 

George L. Perkins was brigade-inspector and paymaster of the Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island troops, with the rank of major in the regular 
army. 

J. Bates Murdock of Bozrah, and Joseph Kinney of Norwich, well- 
educated and promising young men, enlisted early in this war, and were 
soon promoted to the rank of captains. 

Recruits from Norwich, and other towns in this part of Connecticut, 
were assigned to the 25th regiment, commanded by Major Jessup. This 
regiment was on the Niagara frontier in the campaign of 1814, and in the 
hottest part of the fight during the severe engagements at Chippeway and 
Bridgewater. This last battle, — known also as the battle of the Cataract, 
and of Lundy's Lane, — was then considered the most desperate battle ever 
fought in North America: the loss on either side amounting to nearly one- 
fourth of those engaged.* 

Capt. Kinney fell in this battle, — shot through the breast just at the 
close of the engagement, and died upon the battle-field. He was a gallant 
oflicer, with a fine person and soldier-like bearing, popular with the army, 
and a favorite in society. Ilis sad fate excited a deep sympathy in the 
community at home. 

* One of the survivors of the campaign of 1814, (Asa Manning, drummer, now 
janitor of the Free Academy,) says : " There were some 45 of us Norwich hoys, who 
fought at Lundy's Lane, some of wliom laid down their lives on tliat bloody field, and 
all fought with courageous gallantry. We brought off our flag, though it was shot 
from the staff and riddled with 30 or 4(3 bullet holes." Mr. Manning's father, Diah 
Manning, was in tlie war of the Revolution, and one of Washington's body-guard. 



564 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The following inscription is on the family monument at Norwich : 

Joseph, son of Newcotnb and Sally Kinney, entered the U. S. Army as Lieutenant 
at the commencement of the war with Great Britain in 1812, was engaged in several 
gevere skirmishes, besides six sanguinary battles, the last of which was at Lundy's 
Lane, BriJgewater, July 25th,^1^14, where he was killed commanding the 2d division 
of the 25th regiment of U. S. Infantry, in the 27th year of his age. 
Buried in Buffalo, N. Y. 

Very few reminiscences can be gathered of this war. It was unpopular 
in New England, and its deeds of heroism were not laid up as treasures 
of the memory by sympathetic admirers. 

Notwithstanding the inventive genius of our people, and the facility 
with which they contrive substitutes when deprived of customary comforts 
and conveniences, the privations consequent upon the war were numerous 
and perplexing. We had too literally followed the advice of some of our 
statesmen, to keep our work-shops in Europe. Articles of steel and iron, 
for instance, were all of English production. Even pins had not then 
been made to any extent, if at all, in this country, and during the war 
were upwards of a dollar per paper. Out of many hundred articles which 
constituted the retail assortment of the largest hardware and furnishing 
store at that time in Norwich, only four were manufactured in this coun- 
try, viz., steelyards, cut nails, bed-cords, and screw-augers. These last 
were an American invention. 

The war gave to the manufacturing interest of Norwich a decided 
impetus. The following mills in and around the town originated in the 
exigencies of the time, and went into operation between 1813 and 1816. 

Cotton-mill of Goddard & Williams, at the Falls : John Gray, agent. 

Fanning cotton-factory at Jewett City ; Christopher Lippitt, agent. 

Bozrahville cotton-factory; Erastus Hyde, agent. 

Cotton-factory at Lisbon ; LaFayette Tibbitts, agent. 

Nail factory at the Falls ; Wm. C. Gilman, agent. 

Scholfield's woollen-factory at Jewett City. 

Woollen-factory of Cleveland & Allen, near Lord's Bridge. 

As illustrative of the sudden changes that the tide of war often makes 
in domestic history, the following incidents merit notice : 

The flag-ship of the blockading squadron at New London was the 
Ramillies, on board of which was an impressed American seaman named 
John Carpenter, a native of Norwich. His father, an aged and respect- 
able man, ascertained this fact, and, provided with suitable vouchers, went 
off to the squadron with a flag of truce, and applied for his release. Com- 
modore Hardy, after patiently examinining the case, freely gave the sea- 
man his discharge, with certificates to show that he had served faithfully 
for more than five years, and was entitled to $300 wages and $2000 



HISTORY OP N li W I C H . 505 

prize money. The father met his son, whom he had not seen for more 
than eiglit years, on the deck of the Ramillies, and they came home 
together. 

Capt. Asa Hosmer of Norwich had been five years separated from his 
family, engaged in trade upon the coast of South America. He was re- 
turning Iiome in 1812, a passenger in a merchant vessel, and was within 
fourteen miles of the coast, when an English man-of-war came in sight, 
and the vessel was taken as a prize. 

Capt. Ilosmer suffered a long detention with the blockading fleet, hov- 
ering day after day and month after month in sight of his native coast, 
before he was released. 

The same enterprising mariner and trader was subsequently immured 
during three yeai's and nine months in a Spanish dungeon at Havana. 
He returned home from this exile July 25, 1820, and immediately 
resumed his maritime pursuits, but died on the coast of Honduras in 
1824. 

The news of peace came so suddenly, that it threw the whole country 
into transports of joy ; all was enthusiasm and ecstacy, and the rejoicings 
exceeded any thing ever before witnessed in America. The grateful 
tidings reached Norwich, Feb. 13, 1815, and the citizens gave vent to 
iheir boundless joy in mutual congratulations, shouts, cannonades, and illu- 
minations ; rockets flew up from the hills, salutes were fired from the ships 
in the river, and these were echoed from the fortresses at New London, 
and those again were responded to from the British blockading squadron 
at the mouth of the river, till the whole ac^acent country was made glad 
with the tidings. 

The winter had been distinguished as a season of severe frost ; loaded 
sleds traveled on the bosom of the Thames in perfect safety ; and for sev- 
eral weeks persons might skate all the way from Norwich to New London 
upon the river. But as soon as peace w^as proclaimed, preparations were 
made to revive business. 

Admiral Hotham's blockading squadron, which had long been keeping 
watch at the mouth of the river, put to sea March 11th. 

The dismantled ships in the river made haste to resume their gear ; the 
Macedonian, the last to leave her moorings, went down to New London 
April 4th. 

The brig Dove, Walter Lester, was the first merchant vessel to start 
on a voyage. She cleared the last of Api'il for St. Vincent, with horses 
and cattle. The Dove was also the first to arrive from a foreign port. 
She brought in a valuable cargo in August ; duties, $9,832. 

Brig Fame, J. S. Billings, sailed in June for Guadaloupe. Brig Hope, 
George Gilbert, cleared in December. Very few, however, of the mer- 



&QQ HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

cliant:^ and sliip-masters resumed their former correspondence with the 
Ishmds.* A voyage was now and tlien made with fair success, but before 
1820 the rcguUir West India trade of Norwich seems to have tapered into 
extinction. Capt. WaUer Lester was one of the last engaged in it. 

Norwich had been so thoroughly depressed in its mercantile interests 
by the war, that the restoration to prosperity could not be otherwise than 
gradual and slow. The general stagnation of business arrested the growth 
of the city, and kept it for nearly the first quarter of the century without 
advance or improvement. For twenty years or more, no buildings of any 
importance, except the dwelling-houses heretofore mentioned in Washing- 
ton street, were erected in Chelsea. The hotel of Reuben Willoughby, 
since much altered and enlarged, and now known as the American House, 
was built in 1803-4. From 1800 to 1820, the population of Norwich 
increased only 148. Thomas Robinson built on Main street in 1825; 
Russell Hubbard on Broadway the next yeai-. Mansfield's brick row, 
erected in 1831, was a decided indication of reviving enterprise. 

In 1806-7, the clearances for foreign ports from the whole New Lon- 
don district exceeded 100 each year. In 1819, only 24 are recorded; in 
1820, only 16. These facts are striking evidences of the decline of for- 
eign trade in this disti'ict. 

But the era of steam navigation had now commenced. On the 15th of 
October, 1816, Capt. Bunker in the steamboat Connecticut ascended the 
Thames. The Norwich Courier, in its issue of that day, circulated the 
interesting intelligence through the town. 

2 o'clock P. M. — " We stop the press to announce the arrival at this port of the new 
Steam Boat Connecticut, Capt. Bunker," &c. 

This was the first steam trip to Norwich, and people from the neigh- 
borhood rushed to the place to behold the prodigy that science had pro- 
duced, — a ship wafted safely over the waters by fire. 

A small steamer called the Eagle, 85 tons burden, and raising 38 lbs. 
to the inch, was soon afterw^ard constructed at Norwich by Gilbert Brews- 
ter, an ingenious mechanician then living in Norwich. It was furnished 
with a small engine, and what was called a wooden boiler, but consisting 
mainly of an iron cylinder cased in wood. It went down the river on its 
first or trial trip, July 1, 1817, and met on the way the steamboat Fulton, 
Capt. Law, with streamers flying and music playing, in honor of James 
Munroe, President of the United States, who was on board. The Presi- 

* Several of the veteran sea-captains found ready employment in other ports. In 
1820, Capt. Colver made a voyage to Archangel in the barque Sarah Louisa ; Capt. 
"Whiting went to Trieste in the ship Garonne, and Capt. Tracy to London in the Lon. 
don Packet, — all from New York. These ship-masters and several others, though sail- 
ing for many years from other ports, had their homes in Norwich. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 567 

dent was on a tour tlirough the Northern States, and having arrived that 
day at New London, Capt. Law was making an excursion on the Thames 
to give him an opportunity of viewing the river ; and the trip of the Eagle 
had been undertaken as a pleasui'e excursion, to meet and salute the Pres- 
ident of the United States, while at the same time testing the character 
of the new boat. Capt. John Doane, a well-known packet-master, com- 
manded, and fifty persons purchased tickets for the occasion. 

The passengers, fifty in number, were in the cabin, in the rear of the 
boiler, when it was announced that the Fulton was approaching ; upon 
which they hastened to gain the deck, and just as the last of the company 
was ascending the stairs of the gangway, a terrific explosion took place. 
The end of the boiler was forced out, and sweeping through the cabin, 
went out at the stern, leaving scarcely a wreck of the partitions, furniture, 
and contents of the cabin behind. Even timbers and heavy planks were 
wrenched from their places, and scattered in fragments. 

Had the passengers remained but a minute longer in the cabin, all must 
have perished. Fifty citizens of Norwich came within a minute of being 
swept together into eternity. 

Some of them were wounded by flying fragments of wood, or bruised 
by being thrown down by the shock, but one of the crew, who was last 
upon the stairs, was the only peason scalded, and he but slightly. 

Notwithstanding this first calamity, the Eagle, as an early specimen of 
steamboat construction, reflected credit upon its ingenious builder. After- 
w^ards fitted with a safe boiler, and its name changed to the Hancock, it 
made a serviceable freight-boat, and was employed for some years on 
another part of the coast. 

The regular line of steam communication with New York commenced 
in 1817 ; the Connecticut and the Fulton forming the line, and stopping 
both at New Haven and New London. The packet system from that 
time lost its patronage and importance. The old days of uncertainty, in 
which, when a person started for New York, he ran the risk of being a 
week on the voyage, gave place to three trips per week comparatively 
certain. One of the last of the better class of packets, fitted to accommo- 
date passengers as well as to cany freight, was the Ann Maria, Capt. W. 
W. Coit. In 1820, Capt. Coit went into the Sound steamboat line, run- 
ning at first the General Jackson. Three other steamers on this route 
viz., the Norwich, Huntress, and Worcester, were built for him,* and each 

* The early steam navigation of the river was much indebted to the enterprise of 
Capt. Coit. lie has since been interested in the building of several large steamers, to 
run on different routes. One of these, named the W. W. Coit, built for him at Mystic 
in 1864, and immediately chartered by Government, was the vessel from which Gen. 
Gilmore landed and took possession of Charleston, Feb. 18, 18G5, — her ensigu being 
the first Union flag hoisted on Sumter after the surrender. 



568 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

in succession was for several years under his command. He retired from 
the line in 1831. 

Other commanders from Norwich, who were early connected with the 
steamboat line to New York and New Haven, were Charles Davison of 
the Fanny, and Euclid Elliot of the Maria. 



Notes from the Town Record.* 

Oct. 14, 1800. In Town Meeting — Voted that the Select Men be requested to write 
to the Rcpiesentatives of this town at the General A.'-sembly now sitting at New Haven 
to use their influence in obtaining a resolve or an Act of Assembly prohibiting the mi- 
gration of negroes and people of color from other states into this state. 

In August, 1818, a convention of deputies from all parts of the State 
met at Hartford and agreed upon a Constitution for the State. 

Previous to this the laws and government of the State had been based 
upon the Charter of Charles 11., granted in 1662. The new Constitution 
was submitted to each town separately, and being accepted by the majority, 
was ratified. 

It was laid before the town of Norwich in October. The votes in favor 
of it were 194; against it, 74. 

October, 1826. Resolved, to encourage a project of opening a canal from the tide 
water at Norwich to Worcester Co., Mass., along the Quinabaug river. 

1835. Voted, that the old book of records of births and marriages be transcribed by 
the clerk, Alexander Lathrop. 

June 2, 1837. Resolved, That as it is the duty of every good citizen to discounte- 
nance seditious and incendiary doctrines of every sort, we do deny entire!)/ the use of 
the Town Hall or of any other building belonging to the town for any purpose con- 
nected in any way with the abolition of shivery. 

1837. Voted to use the hiterest of the deposite fund of surplus revenue for schools 
and other purposes of education. 

Jan. 2, 1841. Resolved that no license be granted for selling wine or other spirit- 
nous liquors, except for medicinal purposes, during the year. 

This was moved by Charles W. Rockwell, Esq., and was reiterated by 
him and confirmed by the town at the beginning of several succeeding 
years. 

* Nathaniel Shipman, Esq., presided as moderator at a large number of public 
assemblies. Between 1798 and 1820, he was oftener than any other person called to 
the chair. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 569 

1842. Voted that measures be taken to have Norwich made a whole shire town, in 
order that all the Courts of New London County be lield here. 

May, 1847. Voted to oppose with the utmost vigor, the petition of New London 
to bridge the Thames, as such a measure would be very injurious to the interests of 
this town. 

The sum of $5000 was appropriated to carry out this vote. 



The Norwich Channel Company was incorporated in 1805 "for improv- 
ing the Channel of the river Thames," and a lottery granted to raise a 
fund of $10,000 for this object. Three classes were drawn in 1805-6. 
The managers were Simeon Breed, Joseph Perkins, Dwight Ripley, 
Peter Lanman, and Jabez Huntington. 

When the company should have succeeded so far that vessels drawing 
eight and a half feet of water could advance to the head of the river, they 
were authorized to demand a certain rate of toll. Very little improve- 
ment was effected by this company, although at one time they reported 
nine feet of water, at common tide, the whole distance from Norwich to 
New London. In 1825 the stock was merged in the Thames Bank. 

The dredging machine used by the Channel Company was the patent 
of Stephen Culver, and a suit was brought against the Company for in- 
fringing his rights, but the patent could not be sustained. It was proved 
to be a machine formed on the same principle with one that had been used 
in France, and especially in the harbor of L'Orient, forty years before. 

The patentee was then dead. He had been a packet-master, bridge- 
builder, and machine-maker, and no doubt honestly considered himself the 
originator of the patented machine. But from early youth he had fol- 
lowed the seas, and it was shown that in his boyhood he had been carried 
a prisoner to France, and left for a while at this very harbor of L'Orient, 
and probably retained some vague idea in his mind of the principle of the 
machine, which in after life he worked out and put into operation. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

* 

Miscellanies. 

Controversies, 
Towns, like nations, have their inward sectional conflicts and their out- 
ward hostilities, by which society is often moved to its depths and rendei-ed 
turbulent and dark, though the difficulty may never result in acts of open 
violence. It is by no means a pleasant task to chronicle outworn disputes, 
and it might be well to leave all such themes in the oblivion of decaying 
records, if by suppressing the truth we did not lead to a false estimate of 
the peace and happiness of past days, compared with the present. "We 
are prone to think that social life in the time of our fathers was not beset 
by those contending claims and passionate prejudices that now so often 
disturb the repose of small communities. The unjust inference is there- 
fore drawn, that the old was better than the new, and that in the virtues 
of justice, moderation and good neighborhood we have declined from the 
high standard of our ancestors. But the glass of history often presents 
us with a view of the past which seems but a reflection of the present, 
with even an aggravation of the darker tints. Local feuds, interminable 
lawsuits, abusive language, threatening denunciations, aggressions sectional 
and municipal, were quite as frequent and apparently more causeless and 
infuriated in former times than at the present day. 



Location of the Courts. 

A sectional jealousy between the Town-plot or First Society and Chel- 
sea began to make its appearance soon after the Revolutionary war. As 
the two societies drew towards a balance in numbers and influence, the 
points of collision multiplied, and the jar was nearly continuous. Almost 
every election was marked by high excitement, if not with absolute strife 
and contention. 

In -1798, after a long and sharp contest, a vote was obtained that the 
town meetings should thereafter be held alternately in the First and Sec- 
ond Societies. The first town-meeting in Chelsea was held in 1800, in 
the Congregational meeting-house, and this marks the period when the 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 571 

WO societies were most equally balanced. Yet the predominating influ- 
snce still remained with the Town-plot. In the year 1800, the Mayor, 
ilisha Hyde, the four Aldermen, Thomas Fanning, John Turner, Samuel 
3untington, and Simeon Thomas, the town-clerk, Benjamin Huntington 
he city clerk, Charles Lathrop, and half of the common council, were of 
he First Society. 

The contest for the possession of the court-house and the court sessions 
ivas still more acrimonious. The Ancient Town could not resign these 
privileges without a last struggle to retain them. 

Early in the year 1809, a vote was carried to cede the court-house to 
;he county for the use of the county courts, provided it should be removed 
;o Chelsea Plain at individual expense. The defeated party claimed that 
;his result liad been gained by surprise and from partizan motives. Fresh 
meetings were summoned; the vote was reconsidered, rescinded, and finally 
passed a second time. The county accepted the cession, but before the 
deed of conveyance had been legally confirmed, the storm of opposition 
grew so intense that it was not executed. Dec. 18th, a second vote of 
cession was carried, and a new committee appointed to assign the prop- 
erty. But on the 30th of the same month, another town meeting revoked 
all former proceedings whatever, relating to the removal of the courts and 
the conveyance of the house to the county. 

The contention was renewed at times, with alternate periods of brood- 
ing quiet, for a series of years. It came up again in 1826, with increased 
heat and determination, and at this time a strong desire was manifested in 
the old part of the town for a division into two communities. A petition 
to that effect Avas sent to the Legislature, praying that Norwich might be 
restricted to the First Society and relieved from ite association with Chel- 
sea, but it produced no result. 

Jan. 22, 1827, a meeting was held in the Congregational church at 
Chelsea, at which the two propositions for dividing the town and fixing 
upon the site for a new town and court-house, were discussed with fiery 
vehemence. The vote for a separation was lost by a small majority ; after 
which a conciliatory motion was made and passed, that the new court-house 
should be seated on or near the Central Plain. This vote was, however, 
so disi)leasing to a large party, that a clamorous call for an immediate 
adjournment was made and carried. 

The next day the freeholders re-assembled at nine o'clock in the morn- 
ing. It was good sleighing, and every horse and runner from the farms 
and villages were put in requisition ; the streets were Hned with vehicles, 
and the church was thronged to its utmost capacity.* The vote respecting 

* Before tlie year 1830, at which time the town-house was completed, tlie town meet- 
ings at the Landing were held in tlie Second Congregational Church, 



572 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

the site of the town and court-house was reconsidered and annulled, and: 
a new resolution carried, that the said house should be erected within the 
bounds of Chelsea. The vote stood 227 to 219,— by far the largest num- 
ber of voters that had been present at one meeting since the division intoj 
four towns in 1786. 

At the electors' meeting in April following, the sectional spirit rose, if ( 
possible, to a still higher point. The Chelsea candidates were finally 
chosen: the first by a majority of only one vote, between 11 and 12! 
o'clock at night, after thirteen ballotings ! 

These proceedings show that Chelsea society had now gained the ascend- 
ancy over the older part of the town. The latter again petitioned the 
Legislature for a separate municipal organization, but without success. 

The question with respect to the location of the courts was three times 
brought before the General Assembly, and fully discussed, and twice tried 
in the Superior Courts, the decision being each time in ftuor of their 
remaining where they were. But in the session of 1833, the Assembly 
voted to refer the whole subject to the representatives of the county of 
New London. These met in the town-hall at Chelsea, Sept. 19lh, and 
carried the question of removal, fifteen to eight. All opposition on the 
other side ceased from this time, and the transfer was made in peace. 
The struggle had continued about twenty-seven years. 

The northern section of the town petitioned the Legislature to be sepa- 
rated from <>the city," which was granted. The city limits since that 
period comprise Chelsea, Greeneville, and the Falls, with a section upon 
the river, extending to Trading Cove Brook. 

The town-house was erected in 1829, at an expense of $9,000. The 
upper story was fitted for a court-room, with offices attached, and in 1833 
was ceded to the county for the use of the courts. The first court in this 
new building was in March, 1834, since which time the court sessions 
have been held exclusively at the Landing. The town-meetings contin- 
ued to be held alternately at the Town and Landhig till 1839, when a 
vote was carried with but little opposition, to x'estrict them henceforth to 
the city limits. 

The town and court-house was destroyed by fire April 11, 18G5. The 
books and records were saved. 

In the early period of the town's history, the Jail stood upon the east 
side of the Green, in the town-plot. In the time of the Eevolutionary 
■war it was on the west side, under the brow of the hill, in the rear of the 
present brick school-house. Two buildings were worn out in tliis place, 
each having served about thirty years. The prison was then transferred 
to the south-east border of the Green, near the present post-office, where 
it continued till the courts were removed to Chelsea. The old building, 
vacant and worthless, w^s soon afterward burnt to the ground. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 673 

A new prison, with an adjoining house for the keeper, was erected at 
Chelsea, upon the high ground overlooking the city. These were ceded 
to the county, but consumed by fire, after a l^ew years occupation, June 9, 
1838. 

The fire originated in the cell of a prisoner confined for theft, and was 
kindled by him with a candle which he obtained from his wife. His 
design was merely to burn out the lock of his cell door, that he might 
effect his escape ; but before he could complete his work, the fire got 
beyond his control. The light was discovered, the alarm given, and all 
the inmates rescued ; but from the difficulty of obtaining water, nothing 
could be done to arrest the destructive element. 

The buildings were reconstructed on an enlarged plan, and though the 
taste which seated such an establishment in the most conspicuous part of 
the city may be questioned, yet the buildings themselves are pleasing 
objects in the perspective. 



Gag Companies. 

The introduction of gas as a medium for lighting the city was for sev- 
eral years embarrassed with conflicts of opinion, lawsuits, and vehement 
explosions of partizanship. The first company that was formed for this 
purpose erected their works and obtained from the common council cer- 
tain exclusive privileges for fifteen years. This company was incorpora- 
ted by the Legislature in 1853, under the title of the Norwich Gas Lio-ht 
Company ; Frederick W. Treadway, Superintendent. 

Shortly afterward, great complaints were made ; the light was said to 
be poor, the gas of bad odor, leakages were frequent, shade-trees in some 
places were destroyed, the company v/as accused of having violated their 
charter, and on the whole there was a growing disgust of monopolies. A 
large number of prominent citizens organized a new gas company under 
the joint-stock-corporation law, called the Norwich City Gas Company 
and a trial for mastery between the two parties commenced. The Gas 
Light obtained from the Superior Court an injunction against the City 
Gas, which was set aside by a subsequent decision, and suits, attachments 
collisions and tumultuary street assemblages followed in quick succession. 

In April, 1855, a city meeting was held in relation to these gas diffi- 
culties, which, after some discussion, passed a vote to adjourn without 
action, 176 to 131. This was regarded as a test vote in favor of the 
Joint Stock Company, which thereupon went to work with vigor, and on 
the 10th of May, two conspicuous buildings, the Wauregan Hotel and the 
Chelsea Paper Mill, at Greenevillc, were lighted from the Joint Stock 
reservoir. This company gradually obtained the patronage of the city. 
The {jublic excitement subsided. An arrangement satisfactory to both 



574 HISTOET OP NORWICH. 

parties was made, the old gas-works were purchased by the City Gas 
party, and the two companies consolidated in November, 1858. 



TowvUs Poor. 

For several generations after the settlement of New England, society 
in point of wealth was without extremes. There were no overgrown for- 
tunes, neither was there any positive beggary. A transient vagabond and 
a foreign pauper made their appearance here and there, but poverty was 
not a grievance of the country, calling for a mendicant system. 

If any of the town's people through age or misfortune became destitute, 
the selectmen provided for them. For a century after the settlement of 
Norwich, only two or three in a year required assistance, and generally a 
few shillings covered the whole expense. 

At a later period, the poor were provided for by contract ; that is, placed 
under the care of those who would keep them the cheapest. This prac- 
tice, which is the same as putting them up at auction and selling them to 
the lowest bidder, is too revolting to be long endured by a benevolent and 
pi'osperous community. 

In 1767, a vote was passed to hire a convenient house for the poor, and 
to place them in it immediately. How soon this was accomplished is 
uncertain. It is not until after 1790 that we find the Town Alms-house 
situated upon Long or Ox Hill, and occupying a portion of the Hazen 
farm. This location was both inconvenient and expensive, and was ulti- 
mately exchanged for a lot at Chelsea, adjoining the site of the Episcopal 
Church, where a building was erected to which the town's poor were 
removed in the autumn of 1800. 

In 1795, the Legislature empowered the town to establish a work-house 
for idle persons and vagrants, to be used as a house of correction, instead 
of the jail, to which such culprits had hitherto been consigned. This was 
not done at that time, but after the alms-house at Chelsea was completed, 
a work-house was erected by the side of it, and went into operation in 
1806. 

The first poor-house had been established on a lonely and bleak hill, 
and the second was even less eligibly situated. It was directly upon the 
street, allowing its forlorn residents to be the gazing-stock of the public. 
After a few years a favorable change was made. A third alms-house was 
erected, in a retired yet easily accessible position, upon tlie west side of 
the cove, and furnished with all the accessories of comfort and conven- 
ience that considei'ate benevolence could wish. This was 0})ened for the 
reception of the poor in 1819. The salary of the keeper was $150, and 
the physician's fees were not to exceed that amount. For a series of 
years, even till the flood of emigration and the war of the rebellion altered 

• 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 675 

the circumstances of the country, the number of inmates seldom exceeded 
thirty. 

A new building of brick, the fourth I'egular alms-house of the town, 
with larger and better accommodations, was erected in 1859, on the same 
lot as the preceding. The number of inmates in 1863 was 5G, — two of 
tliem over 90 years of age. 

According to the census of 1860, the number of persons, not in the 
alms-house, assisted by the town for the year ending June 1, 1860, was 
53 native-born Americans; 210 of foreign birth. Since that period the 
number is more than trebled. 

For the year ending Sept. 1, 1865 : expenses of the alms-house, $6,- 
217.74; of the poor out of the alms-house, $15,044. 



Laurel Hill. 

Going back to the year 1712, when the spot now covered by Norwich 
city was a wild, ungraded sheep-walk, we find the east side of the river 
bordered by high, precipitous banks, overshadowed with straggling trees, 
and dense with shrubs and vines, described in deeds as "the rockie land 
on ye east side of ye great river at the mouth of Showtuckct." 

Along the river, running down toward Brewster's Neck, were two farms ; 
the upper belonging to John Downs, and the lower to Joseph Elderkin. 
These farms, after several times changing owners, were purchased at dif- 
ferent periods, the upper by Jabez Perkins, and the lower by Nathaniel 
Backus. Capt. Perkins bought also the Fitch farm and other lands in the 
neighborhood. His wife was the daughter of Mr. Backus, and on the 
decease of the latter in 1787, the Elderkin farm fell to her by inheritance, 
which brought the eastern bank of the river for a considerable distance 
into the ownership of Capt. Perkins and his wife. The only child of this 
couple that lived to maturity was Mary, the wife of Capt. Edward Whit- 
ing, and the two children of this daughter dying without issue, the estate, 
agreeably to the will of Capt. Perkins, reverted in fee simple to their 
father, Capt. Whiting. 

The Indian name of this tract was Shipscattuck. In 1860 the road to 
Poquetannock was called the Shipscattuck path. The original grantees in 
this quarter were Robert Roath, Owen Williams, Josiah Rockwell, Ben- 
jamin Fitch, John Elderkin : these were Shipscattuck proprietors. At a 
later period the dwellings of Thomas Danforth and Michael Pepper were 
said to be at Shipscattuck. 

These grants were all in East or Long Society, which in 1786 was dis- 
severed from Norwich by legislative authority and annexed to Preston. 

Perkins and Whiting were the proprietors on this bank of the river for 



b7o HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

more than sixty years. A large proportion of the land was rugged and 
unproductive ; it was therefore but partially cleared and cultivated. After 
coming into the possession of Capt. Whiting, the only dwelling was a 
small farm-house pleasantly situated on the river, but with no road lead- 
ing to it except a pent-way through the woods. The farm-house has since 
expanded into the costly and eccentric villa of Sunny side. 

In 1845, the Norwich and Worcester Railroad Company laid their iron 
track along the border of the river, purchasing the privilege for a very 
moderate sum. 

With these exceptions this highland district lay almost in its natural 
state until 1850. But taste and enterprise were now ready to take pos- 
session of the hill. The northern portion of the tract, lying nearest the 
city, which consisted chiefly of rock-bound heights and tangled thickets, 
was purchased, Oct. 8, 1850, by three partners, John A. Rockwell, Thos. 
Robinson, and Henry Bill, with the express purpose of bringing it into 
notice as an eligible position for a suburban village. Under their direc- 
tion the land was surveyed, a street opened, and house-lots laid out, and 
the whole thrown open to purchasers. The name of Laurel Hill was 
bestov/ed upon it on account of the preponderance of that beautiful ever- 
green in its woods and on its sunny slopes. Other wild flowers were also 
abundant. The trailing arbutus, the scarlet columbine, the wild pink, and 
the purple gentian, were among its noted floral treasures. 

In 1853, two of the partners in the Laurel Hill purchase resigned their 
interest to the third, and since that period Mr. Bill has been successfully 
engaged in its improvement. He contributed largely to the construction 
of the free bridge over the Shetucket, established his own residence upon 
the hill, and has the satisfaction of seeing other pleasant homes and gar- 
dens gradually extending along the river-side, and changing the ancient 
"Rockie Hill at the mouth of Showtucket" into an elegant rural village. 
Laurel Hill now contains over thirty dwelling-houses ; has forty voters, 
and seventy-six pupils in the schools, — all the growth of ten or twelve 
years. 

In 1857, upon the petition of .John W. Stedman, S. T. Holbrook, and 
others of the inhabitants of Laurel Hill, this district was annexed by a 
State Act to the city of Norwich. This was only a return to its ancient 
allegiance, of a part of Long Society. The dividing line with Preston 
passes over the highest westerly summit of Tory Hill, in the range of 
Lanman's Chair. ' 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 577 

Otis Library, incorporated in 1851. 

This institution was founded by Joseph Otis, a retired merchant, who 
expended for the site, the erection of the building, its furniture, and the 
first purchase of books, about $10,500, and in his will left $6,500 to be 
funded for the future use of the library. 

The building Avas completed in 1850. The lower story contains the 
library, and the upper is appropriated to a pastor's study, toward the fur- 
nishing of which Mr. Otis gave $1,000. The library opened with 250 
volumes and over 1,000 subscribers. 

Hamlin B. Buckingham has been the librarian from the commencement 
to the present time. The most important new works are purchased, and 
the best periodicals taken and preserved. In February, 1865, the num- 
ber of books reported was 6,666. Tickets for the year are one dollar 
each. 

The original board of trustees, nominated by the founder, were : 

George Perkins, William A. Buckingham, 

Rev. Alvan Bond, D. D., Robert Johnson, 

Worthington Hooker, M, D., Charles Johnson. 
J. G. W. Trumbull, 

The spare walls of the library are covered with about thirty portraits 
of citizens who were contemporary with Mr. Otis. These were painted 
by Alexander H. Emmons for Charles Johnson, Esq., President of the 
Norwich Bank, who, in ordering the work, had two motives in view, one 
to preserve the likeness of men honored and respected in the community, 
and the other to furnish subjects for an artist whom he wished to encour- 
age. Mr. Emmons is a self-taught portrait-painter, who has exercised his 
profession for more than forty years in Norwich, and has found constant 
employment. 

Joseph Otis was a native of Norwich, born in July, 1768, at Yantic, 
near what was then the Backus iron-works, now the site of the Williams 
woolen-mill. His parents were from Montville : the name of his mother, 
Lucy Haughton. He had the common advantages of school education, 
but at a very early age went into mercantile service at the Landing, and 
as soon as he reached maturity, entered into trade on his own account. 
He was successively in business at Charleston, New York, Norwich, 
Richmond, and again at New York, where by far the greater pai-t of his 
mercantile career was spent in the commission business. Ilis religious con- 
nection was with the Duane St. Presbyterian Church, where he ofiieiated 
for nearly twenty years as an elder. To all works of charity and Chris- 
tian benevolence he was a generous contributor, — the constant flow of his 
free-will offerings showing the largeness of his heart. 
37 



678 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

In 1838, his health being infirm, he withdrew from business and re- 
moved to Norwich, which was thenceforward his home. His wife, who 
was a daughter of Levi Huntington, died in 1844, aged 72 years. They 
had been married 47 years. Mr. Otis died in April, 1854, in the 8Gth 
year of his age. He had no children. 

By his will he left about $30,000, which was a large proportion of his 
estate, to twelve different religious and educational institutions, in sums 
varying from $1,000 to $7,000. 

Rev. T. H. Skinner of New York, in a letter written after the death of 
Mr. Otis, says of him : 

" It was always refreshing to look on the face of Mr. Otis. It had a benign, friendly, 
affectionate aspect, even when his heart was sorrowful and when his sorrow expressed 
itself in tears. And his natural and gracious amiability was not a weakness, nor was 
weakness its associate. He was a man of sharp discrimination between true and false, 
good and evil, whether in things or persons." 

It was characteristic of Mr. Otis to support with regularity and con- 
stancy every enterprise to which he had contributed, if it continued to be 
worthy of patronage. No better illustration of this trait can be given 
than the fact that he was one of the original subscribers to the New York 
Commercial Advertiser, and continued to take it till his death, a pex-iod of 
fifty-seven years. 



Centenarians. 

In Dvvight's Travels an instance of longevity is recorded, of which we 
find no other account : 

"Ann Heifer, a widow at Norwich, Conn., died March 22d, 1758, in her 105th 
year." 

Abigail, the second wife of Samuel Lathrop, is an instance better known. 
On the completion of her century, Jan. 23, 1732, the Rev, Benjamin Lord 
preached a sermon in her room at the house of her son. Her death is thus 
noticed in the Weekly Journal, printed at Boston :* 

"Mrs. Abigail Lothrop died at Norwich Jan. 23, 1735, in her 104th year. Her 
father John Done and his wife came to Plymouth in 1630, and there she was born the 
next year. She lived single till 60 years old and then married Mr. John Lothrop 
[mistake for Samuel Lothrop] of Norwich, who lived ten years and then died. Mr. 
Lothrop's descendants at her decease were 365." 

An example of longevity that demands a more extended notice is that 
of Capt. Erastus Perkins. He was a descendant of Jabez Perkins, one 

* See representation of her grave-stone at p. 218. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 579 

of the brothers that settled early at Newent. His father, the thu'd Jabe* 
in succession, married Anne, daughter of Ebenezer Lathrop, and settled 
in the town-plot, occupying a house in the street that runs along the side 
of Sentry Hill. About the year 1754, Mr. Perkins brought home one 
day from the woods two young elms, of a size that he could convenientlj 
bear upon his shoulder, and set them out in such positions that when 
grown they would throw their shade over a shop in which he worked. 
These are now the Coit elms, those broad-winged, stately twins that so 
majestically overshadow the residence of Daniel W. Coit, Esq. 

Erastus Perkins, the oldest son of Jabez and Anne, was born Feb. 17, 
1752. He is the only person we can name with certainty, that was bom 
and passed his life in Norwich, who has attained to the age of a century. 
Doubtless other instances have occurred, but the names, dates and proofs 
have not been thoroughly tested and recorded, as in the case of Captain 
Perkins. 

He died Oct. 18, 1853, aged 101 years and 10 months. He had been 
three times married, and by his first wife (Anne Glover) had ten children, 
only two of whom survived him. In his will he leaves a legacy to Eras- 
tus Perkins Pooler, "the great-grandson of my son Jabez, deceased." 

Capt. Perkins had led a frugal, industrious life ; active, but not eager 
and bustling. He was a man of great equanimity of temper, seldom in 
the whole course of his life ruffled to anger. Each of his three wives 
had been heard to say that she never saw her husband out of temper. 
He was all his life accustomed to regular hours ; retiring to rest at the 
sound of the nine o'clock curfew bell, and rising soon after daylight. 

All his schooling was obtained at the Brick School-house on the Town 
Green, where he began with his spelling-book at five years of age. From 
the days of childhood to those of maturity he was in the family of Gen. 
Jabez Huntington, and was employed variously in domestic and mercan- 
tile concerns. Here the customary breakfast consisted of bean-porridge, 
hasty-pudding, johnny-cake, brown bread and milk, baked apples and 
milk, and similar dishes ; the dinner was of meat and vegetables cooked 
in the simplest manner, but bountiful in supply. The Sunday dinner wa.s 
an enormous Indian pudding dressed with molasses. The Saturday night 
supper was the customary baked pork and beans, and the brown loaf of 
the true mahogany color. 

His reminiscences reached back to the days of stamp-act excitement, 
from thence meandering down through the Revolution and the war of 
1812. After the Revolution he was for many years a packet -master, run- 
ning a sloop with freight and passengers between Norwich and New York ; 
and hence came his title of captain. For twenty-three years he was 
Inspector of Customs, acting under the Collector of the New London 
district. 



580 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

On the day that he rounded his century, he received 165 visitors, con- 
versed with thera all in a quiet and affable manner ; recollected persons, 
faces, events, very readily ; related anecdotes, when any thing suggested 
them ; and had the appearance in mind and body of a man of 80 or 85. 

In his history and customary habits there were no marked peculiarities. 
He was neither abstemious nor luxurious in diet. He never drank tea 
nor coffee till he was about 18 years of age, but after that period habitu- 
ally made use of both in moderate quantities. His exercise was just what 
his business and domestic affairs made necessary, expending no surplusage 
in gymnastic feats or hilarious sports, though in his younger days joining 
heartily in the social enjoyments and merry-makings of his friends and 
neighbors. An equable temper and regular habits seem to have been the 
tracks over which the wheels of his life glided smoothly into longevity. 

Thus much it seemed desirable to state respecting that truly historical 
character, the prominent centenarian of the town. 

A sister of Mr. Perkins, Lydia, wife of Shubael Breed, died in April, 
1861, in the 94th year of her age. 

" Sept. 23, 1800. Died at the Poor House, Jack, one of God's images in ebony, at 
the advanced age of 104 years." Norwich Courier. 

Simon T. Rudd is probably the oldest person now living in Norwich. 
He was born at Windham, Sept. 1, 1768. His mother was Mary Tracy, 
daughter of Dea. Simon Tracy of Norwich, whose name he bears. 



Newspapers. 

I. "The Norwich Packet," the first newspaper of the town, has already 
been largely noticed in this work. It was commenced in October, 1773, 
by Robertsons & Trumbull. The Robertsons withdrew in 1776, leaving 
the paper in the hands of the junior editor and printer, John Trumbull, in 
whose sole management it continued for twenty-six years. In February, 
1802, the title was changed, and No. 1455 came out as The Connecticut 
Centinel, — "a name," said the editor, "more appropriate to the times ; the 
Centinel being designed to do the duty of a good soldier, in giving notice 
of approaching dangers." The motto indicated the political party to 
which it gave support: 

" Patrons and friends ; ye men of sterling worth, 
'Tis you who call our grateful feelings forth : 
Firmly in Federal paths we still will tread, 
Nor heed the wasps that buzz around our head." 

Mr. Trumbull died Aug. 14, 1802. The paper was then issued for a 
year in the name of his widow, Mrs. Lucy Trumbull, and subsequently 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 581 

by his sons, Charles E. and Henry Trumbull. After a few years it was 
discontinued. 

II. "The Weekly Register" was first issued Nov. 29, 1790, by Eben- 
ezer Bushnell. Thomas Hubbard, the brother-in-law of Mr. Bushnell, 
appeared as joint publisher, June 7, 1791. In October, 1793, Bushnell 
retired from the paper, which was thenceforth conducted by Hubbard 
alone. The printing-office was '' 24 rods west of the meeting-house," and 
nearly opposite the press of Trumbull. 

Mr. Bushnell was a man of quick wit and varied information ; fluent 
•with his pen, and ready even at poetical composition.* He was a native 
of Windham, graduated at Yale in 1777, and settled at Norwich as an 
attorney. After leaving the Register, he entered into the paper-making 
business in connection with Andrew Huntington, but a few years later 
enlisted in the U. S. Navy, and was made purser of the ship Warren. 
He died while serving in that capacity, at Havana, in July or August, 
1800, aged 43, 

"The Weekly Register" was continued for seven years. At the close 
of the year 1797, Mr. Hubbard removed to the Landing, closing up the 
Register, and proposing to issue a paper more particularly devoted to the 
commercial part of the town. 

III. This new weekly, "The Chelsea Courier," was first issued in 
February, 1798, and with slight variations in the title has been continued 
to the present time — a period of sixty-six years. Thomas Hubbard relin- 
quished the concern to his son, Russell Hubbard, Nov. 13, 1805 ; the 
transfer being accompanied with a change of heading to Norwich Courier, 
its present title. 

In February, 1817, Theophilus R. Marvin became a partner in the 
concern, and for a couple of years the paper was issued by Hubbard & 
Marvin, but it then reverted to Mr. Hubbard, whose last number bears 
the date of April 3, 1822. [Vol. 26, No. 22.] 

The Courier then passed into the hands of Robinson & Dunham, 
(Thomas Robinson and John Dunham,) who commenced a new series, 
April 10, 1822. Robinson retired from the firm in March, 1825, but the 
paper was continued by Mr. Dunham to September, 1842, — more than 
twenty years. 

* Several of Mr. Buslinell's poetical effusions were circulated in MS. after his de- 
cease. One of them, written on the coast of Cuba, was an apology for not joining his 
brother officers, during their rambles on the shore, in carving the names of dear ones 
at home on the rinds of trees. The sentiment was tender and refined, sliowing how 
his sensitive nature shrunk from the bare possibility that strangers with coarse feelings 
might u :er their rude jests over " my much loved Susan's name." 



682 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The next editor of tlie Courier was Rev. Dorson E. Sykes, who, in 
March, 1843, added a tri-weekly to the issue, and continued to occupy the 
position of editor and proprietor for sixteen years and a half. He pub- 
lished his valedictory March 2, 1859. 

George B. Smith, a young printer from Springfield, having purchased 
the establishment, enlarged the weekly paper to a folio of eight pages, and 
instead of a tri-weekly, issued a handsome Daily Courier, No. 1, Dec. 1, 
1858. Both papers were well printed, and highly creditable to the taste 
and enterprise of the editor. But he was met, almost at the outset, by 
financial embarrassments, and at the end of five months the Courier again 
reverted to Mr. Sykes, under whose supervision and control it continued 
till 1861, when the Daily Courier was dropped, and the Weekly Courier 
piblished in connection with the Morning Bulletin.* 

The Chelsea Courier being in point of fact a continuation of the Weekly 
Pegister, — with the same press, proprietor, and general character, — with 
nothing to mark the difference except change of name and locality, might 
be regarded without great impropriety as one individuality, having for its 
birthday Nov. 29, 1790. In this list, however, we have arranged them as 
distinct publications. 

IV. "The True Republican"* was the fourth newspaper issued in Nor- 
wich. Consider Sterry, .John Sterry and Epaphras Porter were tlie print- 
ers, editors and proprietors. It was devoted to the Jeffersonian system of 
policy, and was continued about three years, beginning in June, 1804. 

V. " The Native American " made its first appearance in February, 
1812. It was published at Norwich Town by Samuel Webb, who had 
served an apprenticeship with the Trumbulls, and in 1811 set up a book- 
store and printing-press on Norwich Green. The press was afterwards 
removed to Windham, Mr. Webb's native place, and the paper issued 
from thence. 

VI. "The Norwich Republican" was commenced in September, 1828, 
by Boardman & Faulkner. The same year, a paper called the "Stoning- 
ton Telegraph" was issued at Stonington, John T. Adams editor.f In 

* Mr. Sykes, who edited the Courier for so long a period, removed to California, 
where he still resides. 

t Though entering upon public life as an Editor, and now a State Senator, Mr. 
Adams has devoted himself more assiduously to literature than to political affairs. He 
is the author of several tales of American life, published anonymously. One of these, 
TTie Lost Hunter, is a story of the last century, the scene of which is placed in Norwich 
and its neighborhood. It embodies some of the rich old legends of the place, and is 
interspersed with vivid descriptions of its varied scenery. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 583 

1829 these two publications were united, and under the double title pub- 
lished at Norwich by Adams & Faulkner. The double title was soon 
relinquished, and the paper continued under its original name. 

In September, 1834, it went into the hands of Malzar Gardner, by 
whom it was published for eighteen months. A new series began April 
15, 1835, under Whig management; Marcus B. Young publisher, and La 
Fayette S. Foster editor. It was discontinued in 1838. 

VII. "The Canal of Intelhgence," begun in May, 1826, by Levi 
Huntington Young, was continued about three years. 

VIII. "The Norwich Spectator," first issued in November, 1829, — 
Park Benjamin editor, and Marcus B. Young publisher. This was of 
short continuance. It was revived in 1842 by John G. Cooley, but soon 
ceased. 

IX. The "Norwich Free Press," commenced in February, 1830, by 
Marcus B. Young, but soon discontinued. 

X. "The Aurora" was first issued May 20, 1835, by J. Holbrook, 
who had previously published a paper at Brooklyn, (Windham county.) 
In July, 1838, it passed into the hands of Gad S. Gilbert, by whom it was 
published under the title of the "Norwich Aurora," which it still retains. 
Gilbert's connection with it terminated in May, 1842, and it was after- 
wards successively conducted by William Trench and Trench & Conklin. 
Since Aug. 8, 1844, it has been issued by John W. Stedman, as editor, 
proprietor, and printer. 

A Daily Aurora was connected with it for one year, viz., 1860. 

XI. " The Norwich News," published by William Faulkner from 1843 
to 1848, inclusive. 

XIL "The Norwich Gleaner," commenced Jan. 1, 1845, by Benjamin 
F. Taylor. 

XIII. " The American Patriot," 1848 ; a temporary enterprise, advo- 
cating the claims of Gen. Taylor to the presidency. 

XIV. " The Norwich Tribune," a large, well-printed weekly, which 
began in January, 1852, E. S. Wells editor and proprietor, soon succeeded 
by Charles B. Piatt and Edmund C. Stedman.* It was discontinued in 
June, 1853. 

* Mr. Stedmaa was at this time about twenty years of age. He has since been con- 



584 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

XV. "The Examiner," published bj Andrew Stark; first number 
issued July 16, 1853. This paper was devoted especially to the advo- 
cacy of the Maine Law, the observance of the Sabbath, and the improve- 
ment of the Common Schools, and these subjects were under the editorial 
supervision of Revs. H. P. Arms, J. P. Gulliver, and J. A. Goodhue. 
An agricultural department was attended to by Rev. William Clift. It 
was continued over two years ; its valedictory was dated Nov, 16, 1855. 
The agricultural department was transferred to " The Homestead," a 
journal established by Mr. Stark at Hartford, when the Examiner was 
discontinued. 

XVI. " The State Guard," Andrew Stark publisher, began in January, 
1855, and ceased in May, 1856. It was an organ of the party called the 
Native American, or familiarly the Know-Nothing party : advocating a 
revision of the naturalization laws, and opposing papal and other foreign 
influence. Its motto was " Liberty, Country, Home." I. H. Bromley 
was one of its editors. 

XVII. " The Weekly Reveille," issued by Walter S. Robinson ; only 
ten or twelve numbers printed. No. 1, Oct. 8, 1858. 

XVIII. " The Morning Bulletin," issued by an association formed for 
the special purpose of furnishing the city with a daily paper that should 
be enterprising in the collection of local details, and give the latest tele- 
graphic intelligence. The first number appeared Dec. 15, 1858 ; pub- 
lished by Manning, Perry & Co. — the Co. being understood to consist of 
Homer Bliss and the principal editor, I. H. Bromley. 

The Daily Courier and the Morning Bulletin were cotemporaneous, — 
making two Republican daily papers in the city. In January, 1861, the 
Weekly Courier and the Morning Bulletin were united, and the Daily 
Courier was discontinued. 

In 1862, Mr. Bromley, the editor, enlisted in the army, and went into 
the field as captain in the 18tli regiment. He was afterwards detailed to 
act as provost-marshal, and held this office to the close of the war, but 
through the whole continued in connection with the Bulletin, though not 
giving it his personal oversight. In 1865, he resumed his place as chief 
editor. 

nected with the New York Tribune and other city papers. He is the author of "Alice 
of Monmouth," a fine lyric poem, or " Idyl of the Great War," and various other 
poems : one of which, a satirical effusion, thrown like a lance at a passing event, and 
called " The Diamond Wedding," obtained a wide temporary circulation. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 685 



Uncas and the Indian Graves. 

The ancient Indian Cemetery, heavily shadowed with a native growth 
of trees, is now little more than an inclosure for the Uncas Monument. 

During the summer of 1833, General Jackson, President of the United 
States, with a part of his Cabinet, made a tour through a portion of the 
Eastern States. The citizens of Norwich had long been desirous of erect- 
ing some memorial of respect for their " Old Friend," the INIohegan Sa- 
chem, and they suddenly decided to celebrate the visit of the President 
by connecting it with the interesting ceremony of laying the corner-stone 
of an Uncas monument. 

The Presidential party came from Hartford by land, arriving by the 
Essex turnpike in open coaches, with a brilliant escort of cavalry that had 
gone forth to meet them. Vice-President Van Buren, Gov. Edwards of 
Connecticut, Major Donelson, and Messrs. Cass, Woodbury and Poinsett, 
Secretaries of War, Navy and State, formed the party. They arrived at 
3 o'clock P. M., paused a few moments at the Falls, and then advanced 
to the Cemetery, where a great assemblage of the inhabitants, military 
companies, bands of children with banners and mottoes, and a few scat- 
tered Indians from Mohegan, received the visitors with martial salutes 
and joyful acclamations. 

At the cemetery, where all stood with uncovered heads, N. L. Shipman> 
Esq., in behalf -of the Association, gave a brief sketch of the family of 
Uncas and the existing condition of the tribe. The President then moved 
the foundation-stone to its place. It was an interesting, suggestive cere- 
mony : a token of respect from the modern warrior to the ancient, — from 
the emigrant race to the aborigines. General Cass, in a short but elo- 
quent address to the multitude, observed that the earth afforded but few 
more striking spectacles than that of one hero doing homage at the tomb 
of another. 

The ceremony being concluded, the children sang a hymn, and the 
Presidential party passed away, pausing again at the Landing for refresh- 
ments, and embarking from thence in a steamer for New London. 

Though the corner-stone was thus auspiciously prepared, no funds had 
been obtained or plans matured for the erection of the monument. The 
ladies at length took hold of the work, and brought it to a successful issue. 
Embracing the opportunity of a political mass-meeting, which assembled 
at Norwich, Oct. 15, 1840, in honor of Harrison and Tyler, they prepared 
a refreshment fair, — with generous enthusiasm arranged and filled their 
tables, — took their station as saleswomen, and with the profits paid for the 
monument. 



586 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

It consists of a simple granite obelisk, with no inscription but the 
name, — 

UNCAS.* 

The raising of the shaft, and fixing it upon the foundation-stone, was 
the occasion of another festival. This was on the 4th of July, 1842, at 
which time William L. Stone of New York delivered an Histoi'ical Dis- 
course on the Life and Times of the Sachem.f 

Among the persons present in the tent where the address was delivered, 
were ten citizens of the place over 75 years of age : 

Erastus Perkins, 89. Ichabod Ward, 80. 

Samuel Avery, 88. Newcomb Kinney, 80. 

Seabury Brewster, 86. Benjamin Snow, 77. 

Christopher Vail, 82. Nathaniel Shipman, 76. 

Bela Peck, 82. Zachariah Huntington, 75. 

The whole space inclosed as the Uncas Cemetery, and probably the 
ground for some distance upon its border, is thickly seeded with Indian 
graves, though but very few inscribed stones or even hillocks remain. 
The only inscription of any particular interest is on the grave-stone of 
Samuel Uncas, one of the latest of the Uncas family that bore even the 
nominal title of Sachem, and who died not long before the Revolutionary 
war. An exact representation of the stone in its present ruinous state is 
given on the opposite page. It bears no date. The epitaph, written by 
Dr. Elisha Tracy, reads thus : 

SAMUEL UNCAS. 

For Beauty, wit, for Sterling sense, 

For temper mild, for Eliquence, 

For Courage Bold, for things wauregan. 

He was the Glory of Moheagon. 

Whose death has Caused great lamentation, 

Both in ye English and ye Indian Nation. 

* The Rev. Mr. Fitch, in 1675, wrote this name Unkus. Before the monument was 
completed, G. L. Perkins, Esq., who had charge of the undertaking, wrote letters to 
Noah Webster, the philologist, Thomas Day, Secretary of the State of Connecticut, 
and Col. Wm. L. Stone, a diligent investigator of Indian history, to inquire what they 
would consider the most eligible mode of spelling the name to be inscribed on the obe- 
lisk. They all concurred in recommending the modern orthography, — Uncas. 

t Published afterwards in a small duodecimo volume, entitled " Uncas and Mianto- 
aomoh." 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 



587 




~X 










The Bi- Centennial Celebration. 

The two hundredth anniversary of the town was celebrated by a mag- 
nificent festival of two days continuance, — occupying Wednesday and 
Thursday, 7th and 8th of September, 1859. 

The arrangements for this great jubilee had been planned with a wise 
forecast. A committee of preparation had been for a year in office ; 
invitations had been extensively circulated, and a general enthusiasm pre- 
vailed among the sons and daughters of Norwich and their descendants, 
far and near, to honor this interesting birthday. It was aptly termed the 
great Golden Wedding of the town, kept in remembrance of the hallowed 
union of the Puritan emigrant and his wilderness bride, two hundred 
years before. 

" Here where the tangled thicket grew, 

Where wolf and panther passed, 
An acorn from an English oak 

In the rude soil was cast." 

A vast fraternity, genial intercourse, cordial fellowship, and lavish ex- 
changes of thought and fact, were confidently expected, and seldom are 
joyful anticipations and enlarged plans so fully rcahzed. 



588 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The weather seemed adapted to the occasion. The season in all its 
bearings harmonized with the festal robes and out-door encampments with 
which the inhabitants prepared their dear old homestead for the reception 
of its guests. A general glow of happiness pervaded every countenance. 
The absentees, the wanderers, the distant relatives, friends and neighbors 
assembled. It was a mighty gathering, but yet far more orderly and 
quiet than a customary militia muster, or political convention. It was an 
ovation, hilarious and triumphant, but not tumultuous. The devotional 
element was not perhaps sufficiently prevalent to chime with the princi- 
ples of "two hundred years ago," — but on the other hand, there was no 
bacchanal accompaniment, no rude disturbance to break the swell of a 
note of music or the sound of a speaker's voice, and it was said not a sol- 
itary case of inebriety was observed during the whole festival. 

The most conspicuous features of the celebration were these : 

The decoration of the streets and buildings, and the erection of a wide- 
winged tent upon the Parade. 

A grand procession, military and civic, half a mile in extent, that made 
the tour of the town, with banners, bands of music, and exhibitions of 
trades and professions, many of them in active operation. 

Two historical discourses of lasting value and interest. 

Two descriptive addresses of an oratorical character, — impressive and 
eloquent in a high degree. 

A dinner, with numerous toasts and speeches. 

A closing ball at the great tent on the town park or parade. 

The various exercises were interspersed and enlivened with original 
poetry and good singing. A descriptive poem by Anson G. Chester of 
Syracuse, N. Y., was one of the expected entertainments of the festival, 
but owing to the severe illness of the poet it was not delivered. 

It was estimated that at this celebration 1500 flags were spread upon 
the wind, — not only those of our own country, but the motley emblems of 
all nations. Several magnificent arches were erected at prominent points. 
A very tasteful arch in Franklin street represented two clasped hands, — 
1659 and 1859, with the motto, "A Hearty Greeting." 

General David Young was the chief marshal of the ceremonies. Gov- 
ernor Buckingham presided in the assemblies. Ex-President Fillmore 
was the most distinguished guest. The Bi-Centennial Discourse was by 
Daniel C. Gilman ; the Discourse on the Life and Times of John Mason, 
by Hon. John A. Rockwell. The other addresses, or more properly ora- 
tions, were by Rt. Rev. Alfred Lee, Bishop of Delaware, and Doaald G. 
Mitchell. 

The speakers were all natives of the town, and had the same object in 
view, gratefully to commemorate the scenes and influences by which they 
had been nurtured. It was beautiful to see with what variety of touch 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 589 

they struck the key-note, producing with great diversity of tone, entire 
harmony. The faithful historic record, the biography of the founder, the 
chastened retrospect, and the graceful survey of the two centuries of the 
town's life, presented by the orators, each in his own characteristic style, 
converged upon the same theme — Norwich, our Home. 

Many interesting incidents were connected with this great festivity. 
The corner-stone of a monument to the memory of Mason, the Conqueror 
of the Pequots, was laid in Yantic Cemetery. A dinner was given by 
General Williams to the Mohegans, of which more than sixty of the 
remains of that tribe partook. Mrs. Wm. P. Greene, as a memorial of 
the celebration, presented a house and grounds to the Free Academy for 
the residence of the principal, valued at $7,000. Mr. Giles L'liomme- 
dieu, the oldest native-born American in the town, was then in his last 
illness, and the procession passed the house where he lay, in reverential 
silence. He died six days after the celebration, in the ninety -fourth year 
of his age. 

A history of the celebration, including the preliminary measures and a 
registry of the various committees, with the addresses, poems, hymns, 
speeches, and particulars of interest connected with the great festival, was 
published by John W. Stedman of Norwich, in a well-executed, attractive 
volume, entitled The Norwich Jubilee. The work was compiled, printed 
and published by Mr. Stedman ; the paper was manufactured at the Chel- 
sea Mill, and the whole book in its print, binding and illustrations is a 
Norwich production. As a memorial volume it is of enduring interest. 
Its contents are so comprehensive as to render it unnecessary to give in 
tliis history any thing more than the foregoing brief outline of the two 
grand Red Letter Days of the bi-centennial commemoration. 

The year 1859 was the bi-centennial anniversary of the signing of the 
purchase deed, and of the preliminary steps taken by the proprietors in 
laying out the town, but the anniversary of the actual settlement, when 
woman arrived upon the ground and homes were constituted, was more 
definitely the year 18G0. 

It is to be regretted that a prominent measure, often referred to by the 
speakers, and discussed in the committees, — supposed indeed to be deci- 
sively settled and pledged, — has since the two days of rejoicing been 
entirely overlooked. This is the erection of a monument to the memory 
of Major John Mason, which as yet has gone no further than tlie planting 
of the corner-stone. 

The Yantic Cemetery, where the corner-stone is laid, does not, however, 
seem to be the most appropriate place for the proposed monument. The 
beautiful elevation in the western part of the town, where his remains lie 
unhonored, unmistakably and imperatively claims the memorial. 



690 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 



Missions and Missionaries. 



Norwich is justly entitled to the credit of having manifested a more 
than ordinary devotion to the cause of missions. This interest commenced 
with the Rev. Mr. Fitch, and the exertions made by him to teach and 
Christianize the Mohegans. It was coeval with the settlement, and seems 
never to have died out of the place. 

After Mr. Fitch, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland is doubtless the brightest 
exponent of this missionary spirit the town has produced. The welfare, 
temporal and spiritual, of the poor untutored tribes of the wilderness, 
appears to have been the inspiring object and main pursuit of Mr. Kirk- 
land's whole life. Having been well prepared for his work by an education 
at the Indian School of Dr. Wheelock in Lebanon, and the College of New 
Jersey, where he graduated in 1765, he cast in his lot among the Oneida 
Indians, and for a period of forty-four years acted as their pastor, teacher, 
friend and guardian, — ^living a part of the time among them, and always 
spending a large portion of each year with them, or in their immediate 
neighborhood. He was born in Newent Society, then a part of Norwich, 
Dec. 1 1741, and died on a farm given him by the Oneida tribe, near 
Clinton, N. Y., Feb. 28, 1808.* 

Rev. John Ellis, of West Farms, if a correct judgment can be formed 
from the scanty memorials left of him, was a man of energetic action, 
glowing with Christian enterprise. He took a lively interest in those pio- 
neer missions to the West that preceded the formation of the Connecticut 
Missionary Society, and was agent and treasurer of the General Associa- 
tion in New London county, as the following notice testifies : 

Whereas the General Association at their session in September, 1744, appointed me 
to receive the Monies that might be collected in the several Churches in New London 
County for executing a plan proposed of sending Missionaries to the infant settlements 
north and northwestward : These therefore are to desire said Monies may be sent in, it 
being necessary to transmit the same shortly to the Committee intrusted with the over- 
sight and prosecution of that truly Christian undertaking. 

John Ellis. 

Norwich, Feb. 2, 1775. 

The Connecticut Missionary Society was formed by the General Asso- 
ciation in May, 1798. Joshua Lathrop of Norwich, and Jedidiah Hunt- 
ington of New London, were among the original trustees, and each 
retained this connection during the remainder of his life. Societies in 
aid of this institution were formed by ladies both in the Town Plot and 
Chelsea in 179 9.t 



* Rev. John Thornton Kirkland, D. D., LL. D., President of Harvard College from 
1800 to 1828, was his son. 
t "At the collection for the support of missionaries, made in Chelsea, last Sunday, 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 591 

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was 
organized in September, 1810. In the spring of 1812, auxiliaries to this 
institution Avere formed in New London and in Norwich. The first pres- 
ident of the Norwich Society was Rev. Joseph Strong, D. D., and of the 
New London Society, Gen. Jedidiah Huntington, one of the corporate 
members of the Board. These two auxiliaries kept on their way with 
commendable constancy, with no failures or gaps in th.eir annual contribu- 
tions and reports, to the year 1850, when they were united into one body 
under the title of the Norwich and New London Foreign Missionary 
Society. This association includes all the towns in New London county, 
except Lyme. A semi-centennial anniversary, to commemorate the organ- 
ization of the two original branches, was held by the United Society at 
Norwich Town in October, 1862. 

The 23d anniversary of the A. B. C. F. M. was held at Norwich in 
September, 1842. 

At this meeting, 355 corporate and honorary members were present, 
with eight returned missionaries, and Mar Yohannan, the Nestorian 
Bishop, who was then on a visit to this country. The committee of 
arrangements consisted of Rev. Alvan Bond, D. D., Rev. H. P. Arms, 
Charles W. Rockwell, William C. Oilman, and F. A. Perkins. It was 
estimated that 600 persons from abroad attended the meeting, a large pro- 
portion of them clergymen. 

The number of persons, natives or established residents of the old town 
of Norwich, who have enlisted, fii'st and last, as missionaries of the cross, 
either to the Indians of our own country, or to the heathen of foreign 
lands, is comparatively large. 

The family of Charles Lathrop, Esq., is honorably distinguished in this 
line.* P^'our of his daughters were united to missionaries of the Ameri- 
can Board, and three of them died in the East Indies. The eldest, Mrs. 
Miron Winslow, (Harriet W. Lathrop,) left this country June 8, 1819, 
and lived to accomplish thirteen years of useful and interesting service in 
Ceylon. Mrs. Henry Cherry, (Charlotte H. Lathrop,) of the Madura 
mission, died in less than a year after her arrival in Hindostan. Rev. 
John M. S. Perry and his amiable partner, (Harriet J. Lathrop,) in less 

Major Joseph Williams liberally contributed the sum of ten dollars."^ Norwich Cou- 
rier, May 7, 1798. The special notice taken of this donation shows that giving for the 
support of missions was but just beginning to be considered a duty. Tlio contribution 
of the Ladies' Society of the Town-plot in May, 1801, was $37.37 ; of that of Chel- 
sea, $22.56. 

* Mr. Lathrop died Jan. 17, 1831, aged Gl. He had been Clerk of the Courts in 
New London County twenty-one years, and was a highly esteemed church officer. 



592 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

than two years after they reached the field of their labor in Ceylon, fell a 
sacrifice to the cholera within three days (»f each other. Rev. Samuel 
Hutchings and wife, (Elizabeth C. Lathrop,) after ten years of missionary 
labor in Ceylon, warned by the declining health of Mr. Hutchings to seek 
a colder climate, returned to this country in 1844. 

Rev. Samuel Nott and his wife, (Roxana Peck,) natives of Franklin, 
were members of the pioneer band of missionaries sent by the American 
Board to India in 1812. Meeting with insuperable obstacles to the suc- 
cess of their mission, arising from the opposition made to it by the British 
Government, both duty and expediency required them to relinquish the 
work, and they returned in 1815. 

Rev. James T. Dickinson resigned the ministry of the Second Congre- 
gational Church for the purpose of devoting himself to missionary service. 
He sailed for India, Aug. 20, 1835, and was stationed at Singapore, but 
that mission being relinquished by the American Board, he returned to 
this country after an absence of three or four years. 

Mrs. Eli Smith, (Sarah L. Huntington,) an interesting daughter of 
Norwich, died in Syria, Sept. 30, 1836, before the close of the third year 
of her missionary life. 

Rev. William Aitcheson, a youthful member of the Greeneville Con- 
gregational Church, was ordained as a missionary, Jan. 4, 1854, and sailed 
the next year for China. He entered with bright promise upon his work 
in that vast realm of heathenism, but died suddenly at Shanghai, August 
16, 1859, aged 33. 

Rev. Erastus Wentworth, D. D., another messenger of the Good 
Tidings to the Chinese, is a native of Norwich, where the first eighteen 
years of his life were spent. He left the Professorship of Natural Sci- 
ence in Dickinson College, Carlisle, Penn., and went out in 1854, in con- 
nection with the mission of the Methodist Episcopal Society. His station 
was at Foo-chow, a city of half a million inhabitants, capital of the Fokien 
province. His wife, who was a grand-daughter of Charles Miner, (orig- 
inally of Norwich, but late of Wilkesbarre,) died soon after his arrival in 
China. He returned to this country in 1862. 

Rev. AVm. F. Arras, son of Rev. Dr. Arms of the First Church, went 
out on a mission to the Armenians of Asiatic Turkey, but returned after 
a short period, the mission having been relinquished by the Board. 

Mrs. Sarah J. Haskell, wife of Dr. Henri B. Haskell, a missionary 
physician connected with the mission to the Turkish dominions, is a 
dauo-hter of Patrick Brewster of Norwich Town. The failing health of 
Dr. Haskell obliged them to leave the mission and return home. He died 
at Norwich, Feb. 27, 1864, aged 33. 

But the veteran of the Norwich missionary band is Rev. William 
Tkacy, who embarked for the Madura mission Nov. 28, 1836, and is still 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 593 

a laborer in that wide and rugged field, rooting out Hindoo tares, and 
sowing the good seed of the Better Land. Mr, Tracy was born at Nor- 
wich, June 2, 1807. 

The General Association of Congregational Ministers of Connecticut 
celebrated its 150th anniversary at Norwich, in June, 1859. The meet- 
ings were held in the Second Church, Chelsea. The historical anniver- 
sary sermon was by Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D. It comprised a history 
of Congregationalism in Connecticut, from the settlement of the State to 
the oresent time.* 



Post Office. 

There was no post-office in Norwich before the Revolution. The New 
London office was the station for letter-delivery for all the eastern border 
of Connecticut, to Woodstock and Pomfret north, and from Guilford to 
Westerly inclusive, on the Sound. Papers and bundles were usually dis- 
tributed from house to house by post-riders, but letters requiring payment 
of postage often lay long before being claimed.! 

The Norwich post-office under the Federal Government was established 
in 1782. Dudley Woodbridge was the postmaster for the first eight years, 
and the office was " next door to the meeting-house." After him came 
William and Christopher Leffingwell, who kept the office at Leffingwell's 
corner. The mails were at this time twice a week by three stage-routes : 
ILartford by way of Windham, New Haven by way of New London, and 
Boston by way of Providence. 

The ancient rates of postage appear arbitrary and oppressive, when 
contrasted with the cheap postage of the present day. Letters advertised 
as lying in the post-office, about the year 1800, having the mail-charge 
appended, show that letters from various parts of the United States paid at 
that time according to distance, and that a single letter was often charge<l 
forty or fifty cents. 

Gardner Carpenter, appointed postmaster in January, 1799, held the 
office fifteen years. He died in 1818, aged 66. 

John Hyde succeeded, and was in office from 1815 to 1836, and at a 

* A full account of this anniversary, and a collection of materials to which it gave 
rise, have been embodied in a memorial volume entitled " Contributions to the Eccle- 
siastical History of Connecticut." 

t A list of letters lying in the New London office, March 19; 1756, published in tlio 
Gazette at New Haven, comprises 88, — about half for New London, the others for 
Groton, Stonington, Norwich, Lebanon, Windham, Ashford, Colchester, East Had. 
dam, Hebron, Westerly, Lyme, Saybrook, liillingworth, Guilford, Branford, and Long 
Island. 

38 



594 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

subsequent period three yeai-s, making his whole term of service twenty- 
four years.* 

In 1836, the title of the office was changed to Norwich Town, and the 
orighial name transferred to the City office. Since that time the post- 
master has been often changed, — Henry B. Tracy, who held the appoint- 
ment twelve years, being the longest in office. The present incumbent is 
George D. Fuller. 

The post-office at the Landing was established in 1803, and was then 
entitled Chelsea Landing; this style was changed in 1827 to Norwich 
City, and in 1836 to Norwich, the old designation of the town post-office. 

The first incumbents of this office were Jacob DeWitt and his son John. 
The latter was postmaster from 1809 to 1823. Since that period tlie 
changes have been frequent, the office being one of those most liable to 
be swayed by partizan partiality. William L'llommedieu, first appointed 
in 1829, held the office at two periods, in all nearly seventeen years. 
This is the longest term of office. H. H. Starkweather is the present 
incumbent.f 



Town Clerks. 

1. John Birchard, 1661 ; no record of appointment; in office eighteen 
years. 

2. Christopher Huntington, appointed Dec. 30, J 678, and in office till 
his death, 1691 : thirteen years. 

3. Richard Bushnell, Dec. 21, 1691 ; in office seven years. 

4. Christopher Huntington, son of the former clerk of this name, 1698; 
in office four years. 

Richard Bushnell, second appointment, Dec. 15, 1702 ; in office twenty- 
four years. 

5. Isaac Huntington, (son of No. 4,) appointed Dec. 6, 1726, and in 
office till his death, Feb., 1764. 

6. Benjamin Huntington, March 5, 1764; in office nearly two years. 

7. Benjamin Huntington, Jr., (son of No. 5,) Dec. 6, 1765; in office 
thirteen years. 

8. Samuel Tracy, Dec. 21, 1778 ; in office one year. 

Benjamin Huntington, Jr., Dec. 13, 1779 ; nearly twenty-two years, till 
his death, Sept., 1801. 

* Mr. Hyde was a son of Col. Ezekiel Hyde of Franklin. Besides being postmas- 
ter he was Judge of the County Court and Court of Probate. He is remembered also 
as a school-teacher, — a friend of the young, and an enemy to all oppression. He died 
March 16, 1848, aged 74. 

t For an oflEicial statement of postal affairs in Norwich, see Norwich Jubilee, page 
294. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 595 

9. Philip Huntington, son of Benjamin, Dec. 14, 1801 ; twenty-one 
to his death, Feb. 4, 1825. 

10. Benjamin Huntington, son of Philip, Feb. 14, 1825; in office nearly 
four years. 

11. William L'Hommedieu, Oct. 6, 1828; one year. 
Benjamin Huntington, former clerk, Oct. 5, 1829 ; one year. 

12. Alexander Lathrop, Oct; 4, 1830 ; five years. 

13. John H. Grace, Oct. 3, 1836 ; one year. 

14. Simeon Thomas, Oct. 2, 1837 ; two years. 

15. Othniel Gager, Oct. 1, 1839, and still in office. 

City Clerks since 1826, when the Town-plot was separated from the 
City: 

1827. John A. Rockwell, four years. 

1831. Alexander Lathrop, who died in July, 1830. 

1836. George Perkins, eight years. 

1844. David Young, seven years. 

1851. Levi Hart Goddard, four years. 

1855. John L. Devotion. 

1856. Charles Bard. 

1857. Othniel Gager. 
1861. John L. Devotion. 



Ship-Building and Shipjnng Intelligence. 

Norwich at a very early period was considered a favorable site for ship- 
building, and many small vessels, — sloops, packets, and boats, — were built 
in the river and sent abroad for sale, the banks of the Thames affording 
an abundance of timber. At a later period large vessels have occasionally 
been constructed in the river. 

The Truxton was launched from Willett's ship-yard, June 6, 1799. 
This was built on private account, pierced for eighteen guns, and designed 
l)0tli for war and merchandise. She cleared from New London, August 
20, and proceeded to New York, where she took in a cargo for Spain. 

The brig Suwarrow was built by Willett the same year. 

The Trumbull was a war-vessel constructed by Willett for the Ameri- 
can Government, which was then anticipating a conflict with France, and 
desirous of raising a navy in the shortest time possible. Joseph Howland 
was the agent. The keel was laid in September, and the work plied in 
such haste that labor was not suspended during the Sabbath, and scarcely 
through the dead hours of the night. 

Willett, in the year 1777, had constructed the continental ship Trum- 



596 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

bull, and now another Trumbull was to be honored with a namesake, and 
the launch, which took place Nov. 28th, was graced with the Governor's 
presence. The figure-head displayed his image, with his left foot on a 
cannon, the American flag furled by his side, and a drawn sword in his 
right hand. She grounded in going down the river, half a league below 
the town, and it was two days before she again floated. 

The Trumbull was armed and equipped at New London. She carried 
eighteen guns, and sailed on her first cruise March 7, 1800, under Capt. 
David Jewett of Montville.* 

The Oliver Ellsworth, a merchant-ship of nearly 400 tons burden, con- 
structed by Willett, was owned principally in New London, and was sent 
the next spring to St. Petersburg, Joseph Skinner master, returning from 
thence in October, 1801, with a cargo of hemp, duck, and iron. 

The brig Resolution, 325 tons, built for Daniel Dunham, was launched 
Dec. 20, 1800. 

The Patty, another large merchant-vessel, built for Hezekiah Kelley, 
was launched the same year, and sent on her first voyage to L-eland. She 
was so good a sailer that the distance from Newry to Liverpool, 130 miles, 
was made in ten hours. 

The brig Neptune was built by Willett in 1801 ; the keel laid in April, 
and the vessel launched the 8th of October. 

The brig Ceres was built in 1804, for Roswell Roath, and named after 
the ship Ceres, taken by the French in 1796. 

In 1805, Willett and Gavitt each launched a vessel of 300 tons, and 
Story one of lighter burden. 

July, 1806, "Dropped down to New London the new ship Stabroeck, 
Cooley, for Barbadoes." 

The year 1810 was remarkable for activity in the Norwich ship-yards. 

July 9. A brig of 250 tons, called the Dart, and owned by Augustus 
Perkins, James Gordon, and others, was launched from the lower ship- 
yard of Thomas Gavitt. 

Sept. 1. A vessel launched, of 200 tons, built by Septimus Clark for 
J. and Felix A. Huntington. 

Sept. 14. A ship of 400 tons launched by Luther Edgerton. 

In October, a vessel of 350 tons, sent from the ways of Thos. Gavitt. 

Of a fifth vessel built this year, the Norwich Courier of Nov. 25 gives 
the following notice : 

"Launched by permission on Sunday morning from the yard of Jedidiah Willett, a 
ship of 400 tons, owned by Peter Lanman and others." 

This was at a time when the country was looking forward apprehen- 
sively to a war with England. The ship in question was probably the 

» The Trumbull was sold by the GoA-eniment in May, 1801, for $26,500. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 597 

Rapid, which cleared early in January for Cayenne, and made two or 
three voyages before the declaration of war. During the war, the 0. H. 
Perry, 267 tons, the Marmion, and other privateer schooners, were built 
at West Chelsea. 

After 1820, several whale-ships were built at Norwich: among them 
were the Connecticut in 1821, and the Chelsea in 1827, ships of 3dG tons 
burden, owned by T. W. Williams of New London. 

From 1832 to 1835, two whale-ships and a sealing-schooner were fitted 
out from Norwich. The ships were the Boston, 291, and the Atlas, 261 
tons. After one or two voyages they were transferred, the former to New 
London, and the latter to Mystic. 

In 1832, Capt. Walter Lester made a voyage to Bremen in the brig 
Ospray. The next year he chartered' the ship Boston for the same port, 
and went himself in her as passenger, taking a part of his family with 
him. He sailed from New London March oOth. His return is thus 
noticed in the marine lists of the day : 

23 Aug. 1833. "Arrived ship Boston, Levi Case, 50 days from Bremen, with iron 
to Lester & Co., Norwich : passengers, Capt. Walter Lester, lady and daughter ; Mr, 
Louis Mangier of Germany, and 112 in the steerage." 

The Boston ascended the river without difficulty, and with the tide in 
her favor, came with her lading to the wharf. It was the first instance of 
direct intercourse with Europe after the war of 1812. No other mer- 
chant ship appeared in the port for the next twenty-six years. 

In June, 1859, the barque Samuel Moxley, from Mobile, Capt. Joseph 
H. Holm master, having discharged a portion of her cargo in New York, 
came into the Thames, and drawing but five and a half feet of water, 
ascended easily to the wharfage. Capt. Holm was the son-in-law of Capt. 
Lester, and it is an interesting incident in this narrative that he was in the 
Boston in 1833, an emigrant then just arriving in this country, and in the 
Samuel Moxley in 1859, as its commander and principal owner. 



CHAPTER XLVIIL 

Religious Denominations. 

Baptists. 

The Separatists gathered a small church in that part of the town which 
was formerly called Norwich Plains, or familiarly Leffingwell-town, now 
the south-eastern part of Bozrah. This Separate Meeting, as it was called, 
had but a brief existence, but out of the society thus collected, a small 
Baptist church was formed, chiefly through the instrumentality of Elder 
Zadok Darrow of Waterford. It was recognized by the New London 
Baptist Association in 1789, and the next year Peter Rogers was ordained 
its elder. 

This was the first Baptist church regularly organized, and Elder Rogers 
the first Baptist minister ordained within the bounds of the Nine-miles- 
square. The elder had been a revolutionary soldier, and was a man of 
marked character; without culture or refinement, but overflowing with 
religious zeal. 

This little society held together about twelve years under the ministra- 
tions of Elder Rogers and his successor Samuel West. After this period, 
having no stated ministry, it languished and then expired. Its house of 
worship, of which only the outside had been finished, was left without 
pews or pulpit for nearly forty years. 

In August, 1831, the present Baptist church of Bozrah was organized 
at this center, and the old meeting-house retrieved from its ghost-like 
ruin. 

The distinction of being the first regular Baptists within the present 
limits of Norwich, is awarded to Ephraim Story and Elijah Herrick of 
West Chelsea. They had been members of neighboring churches of 
Sepai'atists, and soon after 1790 began to hold night meetings* at their 
own houses for mutual edification. Whenever they were visited by the 
neighboring Baptist elders, and the congregation was too large for a pri- 
vate room, they assembled in the school-house, or, if the weather was 

* The term night meetings was at first used by way of reproach, as meetings after 
sundown in the evening were at that time unusual in the regular religious societies. , ^ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 599 

sufficiently mild, in a grove upon the hill-side, or in a neighboring rope- 
walk.* At first they were recognized as a branch of the church at Kings- 
ton, R. I., but were organized as a church July 12, 1800. , 

The origin of the church is thus related in a document emanating from 
the church itself:! 

"In the year 1800 it pleased the Lord to collect and unite, from a broken and scat- 
tered condition, a few brethren and sisters, to the number of about 20, who were con- 
stituted into a church in fellowship with the Groton Union Conference. On the 25th 
Dec. following, our beloved Elder was ordained and took the pastoral charge of the 
Church." 

This beloved Elder was John Sterry, who had been for some time pre- 
vious an acceptable leader in their meetings. Christopher Palmer of 
Montville had also labored among them, and assisted in their organiza- 
tion. 

The ordination services were performed in the Congregational church. 
Elder Silas Burrows of Groton preached the sermon. Dewey Bromley 
was at the same time ordained as first deacon of the church. 

The frame of a house of worship was raised by the society in 1801, 
and the building so far completed that services were held in it before the 
end of the year, but it remained long in an unfinished state. 

This church gathered in most of the inhabitants of the west side : — 
Bromley, Gavitt, Herrick, Willett, — these are names identified with West 
Chelsea and with the Baptist church. 

In 1811, Eleazar Hatch left a bequest in his will of three or four thou- 
sand dollars, the interest of which was to be applied to the support of the 
Baptist ministry in West Chelsea. 

Elder Sterry died Nov. 5, 1823, in the 23d year of his ministry, and 
57th of his age. He was a native of Preston, but had resided from his 
youth in the First Society in Norwich, where he served his apprentice- 
ship as a printer and book-binder, and subsequently set up the business 
for himself. In partnership with his brother, Consider Sterry, he pub- 
lished the newspaper called The True Republican. He was also engaged 
with Epaphras Porter in the manufacture of marble-paper ; a work which 
he undertook and successfully prosecuted from resources out of his own 
inventive mind, without any previous instruction in the art. He also kept 
a book-store, and compiled school-books ; % and being a fluent and forcible 
speaker, large demands were made upon him in the way of preaching and 

* Denison's Notes on the Baptists of Norwich. 

t Letter to the New London Baptist Association in 1817, from "The Baptized Church 

in Norwich, under the Pastoral care of John Sterry, Elder." Denison's Notes, p. 59. 
I 
t " The American Youth, a new and complete course of Arithmetic and Mathemat- 
ics : by John Sterry." Norwich, 1812. Of this work he was compiler, printer, and 
publisher. 



600 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

exhortation. The meritorious self-denial of his pastoral service can not 
be overrated, as his pecuniary recompense was but a mere pittance. 

His successor as pastor of the church was Elder William Palmer, who 
commenced his labors April 1, 1824, and continued in charge about ten 
years. He was a grandson of Elder Christopher Palmer, who has been 
mentioned as one of the forefathers of the church. In the meantime the 
congregation outgrew the meeting-house. It was removed in 1832, and a 
new house of worship reared on the same spot, which was dedicated in 
July, 1833. 

After the departure of Elder Palmer, the pastoral duties were dis- 
charged by Messrs. Samuel S. Mallory, Josiah M. Graves, and Russell 
Jennings, in succession, neither of them exceeding two years of service. 
These frequent changes, and other unfavorable circumstances, operating 
against the prosperity of the church, led the way to a new Baptist enter- 
prise, which issued at length in the establishment of the present Central 
Church. At this period the church at West Chelsea almost died out. 
The meeting-house was closed, and finally sold to cancel a debt of $1500 
that had been incurred. 

In 1841, Elder Palmer, the former pastor, was prevailed on to resume 
the office, and the meeting-house, hired for the purpose, was again opened 
for religious services. He resigned in 1845, but continued to reside in 
Norwich till his death, which took place Dec. 25, 1853. 

Elder Palmer was one of the eleven ministers who organized the New 
London Baptist Association in 1817 ; had served from year to year as its 
sole clerk, and was the last of the eleven originators to leave the earth. 

Mr. Palmer's successor in the pulpit was Miner H. Rising. The church- 
members at this time were but few in number, as the Bromley family and 
others who had united with the new church did not retui'n. But in 1845 
and '4G, through the influence of a revival which commenced with a pro- 
tracted meeting conducted by Rev. J. S. Swan, great accessions were made 
to the church, and the total membership reported 276. 

The church-edifice was at this time redeemed, and Mr. Rising ordained. 
The health of the pastor, however, soon failed, and he was laid aside 
from ministerial duty. Since 1849, the ministry has been several times 
changed. 

The Second or Central Baptist Church was gathered Sept. 15, 1840, 
at the house of Avery Bromley in Union street. It consisted of thirty- 
seven members, and was recognized by a council of the neighboring 
churches on the 22d of the same month. Nearly sixty members, from 
the West-side church, soon afterward united with them. For the first 
fifteen months they held their services in the town-hall, but during that 
time erected a house of worship on Union street, which was dedicated 



/ 

HISTORY OF NORWICH. 601 

Dec. 14, 1841. At that time this edifice was probably the best built, the 
most convenient and substantial, of all the churches in the city, the pres- 
ent elegant structures of other denominations being of more recent origin. 
The cost of the site and building was 611,000. Elder R. H. Neale of 
Boston preached the dedication sermon. 

Rev. Miner G. Clarke was the first minister of this church. His 
zeal and energy were conspicuous in originating the enterprise, in planting 
and sustaining the church, and in raising the house of worship. At the 
close of 1843, a little more than three years from its organization, the 
church numbered 433 members. In the spring of 1845, sixty were dis- 
missed to unite in forming a church at Greeneville. 

IVIi*. Clarke resigned his situation in March, 1846, after a pastorate of 
nearly six years. The succession of pastors, since, is as follows : 

Rev. Edward T. Hiscox, from April, 1847, to September, 1852. 

Rev. Joseph A. Goodhue, two years. 

Rev. Frederick Denison,* from November, 1854, to April, 1859. 

Rev. Samuel Graves, the present pastor, entered upon the duties of his 
office in November, 1859. 

In 1863, the church edifice was enlarged, repaired, and in various par- 
ticulars remodeled, at an expense of $7000. The organ of the church 
was pm'chased in 1849, and cost $800. 

The Central Church commemorated its 25th anniversary Sept. 24th, 
1865. The number of members reported was 365. An interesting fact 
was stated by the pastor, that all the oflacers of the church during this 
quarter of a century, — its five pastors, nine deacons, two clerks, two treas- 
urers, and five superintendents of the Sunday School, — were still living.f 

A Baptist church with 100 members was organized at Greeneville in 
1845, and a house of worship erected the next year. The first pastor, 
Rev. D. B. Cheney, was succeeded in April, 1847, by Rev. Lawson 
Muzzy. 

In February, 1854, during the pastorate of Rev. Niles Whiting, the 
church was consumed by fire. It was replaced by an edifice of brick, at 
a cost of $5000. The new church was dedicated Dec. 21, 1854; sermon 
by Rev. J. B. Swan. 

Mr. Whiting, the pastor, to whose perseverance and energy the success 
of the enterprise was largely indebted, did not live to see the new church 
completed. lie died Oct. 13, 1854, in his 43d year. 

The membership of this church has never risen much above or fallen 
far below its original number, 100. 

* Mr. Denison is author of "Notes on the Baptists of New London County," and of 
various communications to peiiodicfil works in the line of historical research, particu- 
larly in regard to the formation of churches. 

t Historical Discourse, by Her. Samuel Graves. Norwich, lsG5. 



602 HISTORY OF NORWICH 



3Iethodists. 

A grave-stone in the Chelsea burial-ground records the death of Capt. 
Moses Pierce, who was drowned May 4, 1781, aged 61 ; and of Mrs. 
Thankful Pierce, his relict, who died Feb. 3, 1821, aged 92 ; to which is 
added : 

" She wag a mother in Israel, and the first member of the Methodist Episcopal 
CKurch in this town, who, like Lydia, first heard the preachers, and then received them 
into her house." 

This lady, while on a visit to some relations in Tolland in the year 
1796, met with the Rev. Jesse Lee, a noted preacher in the Wesleyan 
connection, and became deeply interested in his preaching. Shortly after- 
wards, on his way to Boston, Mr. Lee stopped at Norwich, and preached 
the first Methodist sermon at her house. The ground was well-prepared, 
advocates and well-wishers of the new doctrine having been for several 
years looking foi'ward to this result. 

Other preachers followed, and classes were soon formed both at Chelsea 
and Bean Hill. At the latter place, Capt. James Hyde and Mr. William 
Lamb were the most noted among the early converts. Li Chelsea the 
society enjoyed for a while the fostering care of Mr. Beatty, a resident of 
the place, at whose house there was always preaching once a fortnight. 
But in 1804, Mr. Beatty, with several of his friends and their families, 
removing to Sandusky, the society seemed to be threatened with utter 
extinction, — the only members of note that remained being two aged 
women, Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Davison. They were however kept to- 
gether, and their numbers enlarged, principally through the exertions of 
a young man, who became an exhorter, class-leader, and finally a local 
preacher in their connection. This was Rev. D. N. Bentley, who for fifty 
years may be regarded as the main pillar of the Methodist Church in 
Chelsea. His wife, Mrs. Letitia Bentley, was also devoted to the same 
cause, assisting in the class-meetings, and welcoming the messengers to 
her house with Christian hospitality.* 

In 1811, a church was organized at Mr. Bentley's house, consisting of 
eleven members, and five years later a chapel was built for public services 
upon "Wharf bridge, which was swept off and destroyed by a freshet of 
the river in the spring of 1823. 

In May, 1825, a small church was dedicated at the Falls village, and 
for several years the members from the Landing resorted thither for pub- 
lic worship, forming but one church and society. 

* "Died in this city, Nov. 1st, (1853,) after much suSering, which she endured as 
"seeing Him who is invisible," Mrs. Letitia Gardner, wife of Rev. D. N. Bentley." 
Norwich Courier. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 603 

The Methodist church in East Main street was dedicated June 18, 
1835; sermon by Dr. Fisk of the "Wesleyan University. This building, 
in size and convenience, far surpassed the previous accommodations of the 
society in Norwich. It has since been enlarged and refitted. 

The Methodist society on Bean Hill for many years held their public 
services in the venerable building which had served successively and 
alternately for a classical academy, a free school, and a Separatist con- 
venticle. In this extemporized chapel, many of the early noted itinerants 
preached in their rounds. Here Lee, Asbury, and other messengers of 
the church, proclaimed their message. Here Maffit dehvered one of the 
first of his flourishing effusions on this side of the water. When the 
eccentric Lorenzo Dow was to preach, the bounds were too narrow, and 
the audience assembled in the open air, upon the hill, under the great 
elm. 

The present Methodist church on the hill was erected in 1833. 

The church belonging to the Third Congregational Society, after the 
disbanding of that society in 1842, was purchased by the Methodists, and 
is their present Sachem street church. This is the strongest Methodist 
society in Norwich, and the only one that numbers a hundred members. 
They have five churches, and report a membership in all somewhat above 
four hundred. 

The Free Methodist Church in Main street stands upon the site once 
occupied by an Episcopal and afterward by a Congregational church. 
The trustees are bound to keep the sittings free. This church was gath- 
ered in 1854, and held its first meetings in a large hall upon central 
wharf. Its early ministrations were conducted chiefly by the Rev. L. D. 
Bentley, a son of Elder D. N. Bentley, who follows the footsteps of his 
father as a preacher in the Wesleyan connection. 

There is still another Methodist society within the bounds of Norwich, 
viz., at Greeneville, which began about the year 1850, and in the course 
of a few years reached a membership of more than 100 members. It 
then declined, and was left without a pastor or a convenient place of wor- 
ship for six or eight years, until 1864, when the number of merabei-s was 
reduced to twenty. It has since revived ; a new house of worship has 
been built, which was dedicated April 7, 1864. The membership has 
largely increased, and the society is active and prosperous. 

Two preachers of considerable note in the Methodist denomination 
were natives of Norwich : Rev. Edward Hyde and Rev. B. Ilibbard. 
Mr. Hyde was one of those fervent, heavenly-minded men that seem to 
have been formed after the model of the apostle John. Mr. Ilibbard was 
an enterprising itinerant during the first thirty years of the present cen- 
tury. A memoir of his ministerial life, written by himself, has been 
published. 



604 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Universalists. 

The doctrine of universal salvation, or the restitution of all things, was 
successfully introduced into Norwich between 1816 and 1820, through the 
persuasive eloquence of Rev. Edward Mitchell and Rev. Hosea Ballon. 
These preachers made repeated visits to the place, and attracted large 
audiences. 

Mr. Ballou's first sermon (in August, 1817,) was delivered in the 
church of the First Society, and at its close the Rev. David Austin rose 
and in his impassioned manner uttered a protest against the doctrine. 
His remarks were discursive and flowery, but like all Mi'. Austin's public 
addresses, charming to the ear. Mr. Ballou's subsequent discourses in 
Norwich were delivered at the Landing, in the Methodist chapel upon the 
wharf bridge. 

In 1820, a Universalist society was formed, bearing the title of a "So- 
ciety of United Christian Friends in the towns of Norwich, Groton, and 
Preston." The committee that prepared the constitution was composed of 
one from each of the places named. The preparatory meetings were held 
in Preston and Poquetannock. 

Under tlie patronage of this society, a church was erected at Norwich, 
and dedicated July 12, 1822; the services being conducted by the Rev. 
Edward Mitcliell of New York. This edifice stands in a beautiful and 
conspicuous situation at the corner of Clifi' and Main sts.. East Chelsea.* 

No church organization at that time took place, but the pulpit was occu- 
pied by temporary ministers engaged by the society, the first being the 
Rev. Charles Hudson, from 1821 to 1823. 

A church consisting of eighteen members was organized Feb. 6, 1838, 
and the society incorporated in 1842, under the name of First Universal- 
ist Society in Norwich. About the same time the old church edifice was 
demolished, and a new one erected on the same site, which has since been 
much enlarged and improved. 

No house of worship in Norwich has a position so open and command- 
ing as this. 

This society has had a succession of eight or ten ministers, with short 
pastorates of two or three years each.f 

* Mr. Samuel T. Odiorne contributed liberally to the erection of this church, and 
after his death, in accordance with his expressed wish, a mortgage upon the edifice of 
$900, which he held, was canceled. Mr. Odiorne died in 1824. 

t For further particulars respecting Univcrsalism in Norwich, sec the Historical Ser- 
mon of R. 0. Williams, pastor, delivered May 5, 1844. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 605 



Summary of Churches. 

4 Congregational. 5 Methodist. 

3 Episcopal. 1 Universalist. 

3 Baptist. 1 Koman Catholic. 



The Episcopal Society at Yantic have hitherto held their services in a 
hall belonging to the Factory Company, but they are now looking forward 
to the erection of a handsome church. The number of families reported 
in this society is fifty-five. The church is now in charge of Rev. E. L. 
Whitcome. 

Eev. Z. H. Mansfield was rector of this church from 1854 to his de- 
cease. He was a native of Norwich, graduated at Trinity College in 
1836, and died April 10, 1858, at the family homestead, in the same room 
where he was born. His age was 47. He was deeply intei-ested in the 
cause of education, and several years of his life were devoted to the 
instruction of youth. 

The following clergymen of the Episcopal Church are natives of Nor- 
wich city : 

Rev. Alfred Lee, Bishop of Delaware. 

Rev. Thomas H. Vaill, D. D., Bishop of Kansas. 

Rev. James A. Bolles, D. D. 

Rev. John A. Paddock. 

Rev. Benjamin H. Paddock. 

Rev. Alfred L. Brewer. 

The manufacturing establishments at Greeneville have been the means 
of alluring foreign laborers to the place. St. Mary's Catholic Church 
was built many years since for the accommodation of the Irish, the most 
numerous of the foreign emigrants. It originally seated about 800 ; it 
has been twice enlarged, and now holds more than 3000. Rev. Daniel 
Kclley, pastor. 

This society is understood to be engaged in collecting funds and making 
arrangements for erecting a much larger and more magnificent church in 
the city. 

The large admixture of foreigners in the present population of the city 
is clearly shown by the registry of marriages. In 1863 the number re- 
ported was 184; in 1864, 180. 

Botli parties American in 1863, 96 In 1861, 89 

" " Foreigners " 59 « 77 

One of tlu3 parties foreign, 23 " 10 

Colored persons, 6 " 4 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

Manufactures. 

The enterprise of the inhabitants in the line of manufactures has been 
frequently mentioned in the course of this history. But the subject will 
here be retraced, and various undertakings chronicled in their order, as 
far as data for this purpose have been obtained. 

Iron-v/orks were established in the parish of New Concord in 1750 by 
Capt. Jo^luia^ Abell and Nehemiah Huntington. They contracted with 
Robert Martin of Preston, to become the overseer or operator of their 
works, engaging him to make and refine Iron into Anconie, to be done 
workmanWce, and binding themselves to remunerate him with 100 lbs. of 
bar iron for every 200 Anconies he shall make. 

Elijah Backus commenced a similar work at Yantic nearly at the same 
time. These are supposed to have been the first forges erected in New 
London county. They manufactured blooming and bar iron for anchors, 
mills, and other uses. 

In the year 1766, cutlery as a business made its appearance, and various 
implements of husbandly, that had before been imported, were manufac- 
tured in the town. The Backus iron-works obtained great repute, and 
during the Revolutionary war all kinds of iron-work necessary for domes- 
tic use, and various instruments of warfare, were made and repaired at 
the Yantic forges. 

The same year a pottery for the manufacture of stone-ware was estab- 
lished at Bean Hill, which continued in operation far into the present cen- 
tury, seldom, however, employing more than four or five hands. 

The making of Imseed oil was commenced at Bean Hill in 1748, by 
Hezekiah Huntington. In October, 1778, Elijah and Simon Lathrop 
gave notice in the New London Gazette that they had erected an oil-mill 
at Norwich Falls, and were ready to exchange a gallon of oil for a bushel 
of well-cleaned flax-seed. 

In 1786, Silas Goodell set up another oil-mill near the falls. This was 
probably the same mill that in 1791 was owned by Joshua Huntington. 

Lathrop's mill was destroyed by fire Nov. 9, 1788. The loss was esti- 
mated at $1500, a considerable quantity of oil and flax-seed being con- 
sumed. It was rebuilt the next year. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 607 

In these mills flax-seed was used to produce the best kind of oil, but 
inferior kinds of seed were often substituted. The three mills together 
produced about 9,000 gallons annually, which sold at three or four shil- 
lings per gallon. 

During the Revolutionary war, iron-wire and cards wei*e made at the 
falls, under the supervision of Nathaniel Niles. 

Edmund Darrow established at the same period a naillery, which con- 
tinued in operation nearly to the close of the century. 

The business of weaving stockings was begun in 1766, under the pat- 
ronage of Christopher Leffingwell. William Russell, an Englishman, 
was the first operator. For. many years it was a small concern, limited to 
two or three looms. But in 1791, Leffingwell had nine looms in opera- 
tion, producing annually from 1200 to 1500 pair of hose, and employing 
in the manufacture worsted, cotton, linen, and silk. The silk hose ranged 
in value from 12s. to 20s. per pair. Gloves and purses were also woven 
at these mills, the whole business employing only five operatives. 

At a later period the business was continued successively by Louis 
Baral, Leonard Beattie, and William Coxe, all foreigners, and still later 
by Jeremiah Griffing, a native of New London. 

Stocking-looms were not only employed here, but constructed. Before 
1790, looms that had been made in Norwich were set up at Hartford and 
Poughkeepsie, — two at each place. Looms were in operation at that 
period in New Haven, Litchfield, and Wallingford, and it is not improba- 
ble that these also were made in Norwich. 

To accommodate his stocking-looms and other utilitarian projects, Col. 
Leflingwell built, after 1780,* the range of shops called LeffingAvell's row. 
In 1785, wool-cards were made by James Lincoln in Leffingwell's row. 

Paper. Li the early manufacture of this article in Norwich, Christo- 
pher Leflingwell stands pre-eminent. His mill upon the Yantic, near 
No-man's Acre, was erected in 1766. This was the first paper-mill in 
Connecticut t Leffingwell's mill, in a short period, produced various 
kinds of paper for wrapping, writing, px'inting, cartridges, and sheathing. 
The quantity annually turned out was estimated at 1300 reams, the prices 
varying from 4s. Oo'. to 45s. per ream. Ten or twelve hands were em- 

* Not after 1790, as stated ante, page 512, which is an error. 

t Not the first in New England. There was one at Milton, Mass., in 1733, as ap- 
pears from an advertisement of that date in a Boston paper : 

" In Milton, near the Paper Mill, 
A new built house to rent : 
Ask of the Printer and you will 
Know further to content." 



608 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

ployed.* At the outset of this undertaking, a small bounty was granted 
by the government, to continue for three years. It was not renewed. 

After the year 1790, Andrew Huntington engaged in the manufacture 
of paper, and erected a new mill upon the Yantic, either on the site of 
LefRngwell's old mill, or very near it. Ebenezer Bushnell was for a few 
years his partner. 

Chocolate Mills. Christopher Leffingwell was first in this department 
also. His chocolate-mill was in operation in 1770. Another was erected 
in 1779 by Simon Lathrop. They were both moved by water-wheels, and 
could be tended each by a single workman. The chocolate made was of 
the best quality, and the quantity produced was estimated at 4,000 and 
5,000 pounds annually. It sold in considerable quantities at 14c?. per lb.; 
retailers asked 18c?. 

ClocJcs and Watches. This business was commenced in 1773 by Thomas 
Harland, a mechanician of great skill and efficiency. His watches were 
pronounced equal to the best English importations. In 1790 he had ten 
or twelve hands in constant employ, and it was stated that he made annu- 
ally two hundred watches and forty clocks. His price for silver watches 
varied from £4 10s. to £7 IO5. As at that period watches were far from 
being common, and it was even a mark of distinction to wear one, Mr. 
Harland's establishment was a center of the business for a considerable 
extent of country. 

Barzillai Davison, 1775, N. Shipman, Sen., 1789, Eliphaz Hart on the 
Green by the court-house, and Judah Hart at the Landing, in 1812, 
though not probably to any great extent manufacturers, were yet " work- 
ers in gold and silver," and offered for sale handsome assortments of jew- 
elry and time-keepers.f 

Between the years 1773 and 1780, four fulling-mills with clothier's 
shops and dye-houses went into operation: one in the parish of New 
Concord ; one in Franklin ; a third at the falls, " near Starr and Leffing- 
well's woi'ks adjoining the Paper Mill;" and a fourth on Bean Hill. 

* This paper-mill excited great interest in the community. A private letter written 
in October, 1767, says of it : 

" The Paper-mill at Norwich is plentifully supplied with rags, and has full demand 
for its paper. Mr. Throop tells me he has viewed it when at work ; that it is a curi- 
osity ; that they mould and make ready for the Press about ten sheets per minute by 
the watch." 

t The statistical report of Connecticut for 1812 shows that 40 gold watches and 1650 
of silver were then owned in the State. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 609 

In a statement made of the industrial pursuits of the town in 1791, in 
addition to several establishments already noticed, are the following items: 

Two nailleries, or machines for making nails, employing eight or ten 
hands. 

Fifteen blacksmiths, who make annually about 50 dozen scythes, 150 
dozen hoes, 50 dozen axes, and other implements for domestic and agri- 
cultural use. 

Three distilleries. 

Two tobacconists. 

Two braziers, and a bell-foundry. 

Cotton. In 1790, Dr. Joshua Lathrop established a cotton-factory in 
the town-plot. He began with five Jennys, one carding-machine, and six 
looms. This machinery was afterward increased, and a great variety of 
goods manufactured, probably to the amount of 2000 yards per year while 
the project was continued. In 1793, the firm was Lathrop & Eells. The 
following is one of their advertisements, March 19, 1793 : 

"Lathrop «& Eells have just finished a variety of Cotton Goods, consisting of Royal 
Ribs, Ribdelurcs, Rihdurants, Ribdenims, Ribbets, Zebrays, Satiaetts, Satin-Stripes, 
Satin Cords, Thicksetts, Corduroys, Stockinetts, Dimotys, Feathered Stripes, Birds- 
Eye, Denims, Jeans, Jeanetts, Fustians, Bed Tickings that will hold feathers. 

" The above Goods are well finished, and for durability undoubtedly superior to 
European manufactured. Gentlemen, merchants and others, who feel disposed to en- 
courage home manufactures, are invited to call and see for themselves, and may be as- 
sured they shall be supplied as low as they can furnish themselves from any quarter." 

This business could not be made remunerative, and after a trial of eight 
or ten years was discontinued.* 

The manufacturing spirit had been called into exercise to meet the exi- 
gencies of the Revolution. Before that time the country had been depend- 
ent upon England for all articles that required combination, capital and 
machinery for their production. When the intercourse with Europe was 
renewed, and commerce again brought the lavish results of foreign labor 
to our shores, the crude manufactures of the country declined, most of the 
imported articles being clicaper than those made at home. The spinning- 
wheel and loom still kept their place in families, fulling-mills and carding- 
machines were patronized, ropes and nails wei'e made ; but as a general 
fact, the work-shops and factories of the country were in Europe. The 

* The two buildings occupied many years by Lathrop & Eclls and Coit & Lathrop, 
one for a factory, and the other for sales of drugs and merchandize, stood near togct ler 
on the town street, west of the present residence of Mrs. W. C. Oilman. They were 
similar in construction ; each had a projecting roof, and at one time they were painted 
blue with white trimmings. 
39 



610 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

spirit and enterprise of Norwich had been wholly diverted into the chan- 
nels of commerce, and future prosperity seemed to be expected only from 
the ocean. 

At the commencement of the present century, the paper-mill at the falls 
was the only establishment of any kind in Norwich worthy the name of a 
factory. 

The Norwich Falls district, now so busy, bustling, and crowded with 
inhabitants, was then a wild, secluded hamlet, consisting of two or three 
old mills and the dwelling-house of Elijah Lathrop. Beautiful was the 
place for all the purposes of romance and lonely meditation, — renowned 
for echoes and evergreens, the chosen resort of moonlight parties, curious 
travelers, and wandering lovers, — but the Genius of Manufacture had 
only marked it for his own ; he had not yet erected his standard and mar- 
shaled his legions in the valley. In relation to manufactures, and in some 
respects it would apply to the whole business of the town, this was a 
period when old things passed away, and all things became new. 

Hemp. In the year 1803, Nathaniel Howland & Co. erected a build- 
ing at the falls for hemp-spinning. Mr. Timothy Lester was engaged as 
machinist ; the best of hatcheled hemp was used, and the warps were 
spun by a recently improved machine. Looms were soon introduced, and 
duck and canvas offered for sale in 1804. 

The Rowlands appear to have been stimulated to this undertaking by a 
visit from Mr. Baxter, a noted hemp-spinner from Great Britain, who 
was engaged in introducing the manufacture of cordage and duck, by 
machinery, into this country. He came to Norwich to survey the situa- 
tion, and was satisfied with its facilities, but was not himself sufficiently 
encouraged to remain and conduct the experiment.* 

Col. Howland's mill kept on its way for a few years, employing from 
twelve to twenty hands, and throwing a considerable quantity of hempen 
cloth into the market. He was encouraged in his operations by the gov- 
ernment. Proffers were made to him to supply the navy upon cash 
advances, and a small bounty was granted by Congress for every bolt of 
duck produced. But the business could not withstand the pressure of the 
times, and was overwhelmed in the general wreck of mercantile affairs, 
connected with the embargo and other commercial restrictions of that 
period. 

Manufactures at the Falls. The rise of manufactures after this period 
is intimately connected with several prominent individuals who removed 
to the place from other parts of New England. 

* Reminiscences of G. S. Howland, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Norwich Jubilee, p. 298. 







.^^-^^^--^ 



^^^^ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 611 

Calvin Goddard in 1807. William C. Gilman in 1816. 

William Williams in 1809. William P. Greene in 1824. 

These all in their first coming to Norwich Avere connected with the 
manufacturing interest at the Falls. Though not natives, they are wholly 
identified with the place, and by their enterprise and their liberal and 
enlightened course as citizens, have contributed largely to its prosperity. 

Mr. Goddard was a lawyer and statesman, connected with the manu- 
facturing interest only as a proprietor and patron. Having projected an 
establishment at the Falls, he purchased in 1809 the old Lathrop house 
and mill-seats of that district, the saw, grist and oil-mills, with the ancient 
distillery and tannery lots and privileges, and formed a partnership with 
William Williams, Sen., of Stonington, and his sons, (Wm. Jr. and Thos. 
W.,) under the firm of William Williams Jr. & Co., one of the younger 
partners taking the principal agency in the business. In common pai^ 
lance, however, the firm was Goddard & Williams. 

This company set up the machinery necessary for grinding and bolting 
" Virginia wheat and Southern corn ; " imported their grain, and obtained 
William Weller, an experienced miller from- Pennsylvania, for their fore- 
man. They kept two or three sloops in their employ, sailing to Norfolk, 
Petersburg, Fredericksburg, and Ric'.i.r. nd. 

In 1812, they fitted out the schooner Ann and Mary, and sent her to 
Cadiz with flour. This was their only foreign adventure. The war with 
Great Britain throwing obstacles in the way of trade with the South, the 
flour business was broken up, and the company turned their attention to 
the manufacture of cotton cloth. 

The llowland duck-factory was changed by this company into a cotton- 
mill, which began to run in December, 1813, preceding by a few months 
the cotton-fictories at Jewett City and Bozrahville. They began with 
carding and spinning, giving out the yarn from the factory to be woven in 
hand-looms, but after three or four years the power-loom was introduced, 
and they turned out mattrasses, nankeens and shirtings in a completed 
state. 

This mill, though of small account in comparison with the gigantic ope- 
rations of modern times, and by no means a money -making experiment to 
the proprietors, merits notice as one of the first cotton-mills successfully 
established in the county, and as leading the way to undertakings in the 
same line far more extensive and important. The title of this company 
was changed in 1819 to Williams Manufacturing Co. It continued only 
a few years in active operation, but its affairs were not settled mid the 
partnership dissolved till 1833, when they sold out to Amos Cobb and 
others, agents of the Norwich and New York Manufacturing Co. 

In May, 1813, William C. Gilman, "late of Boston," purchased a priv- 
ilege at the Falls, of Goddard & Williams, and in connection with the 



612 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Ii'on and Nail Co. established a naillery, which went immediately into 
successful operation. In this factory the nails were cut by a newly- 
invented machine, with great rapidity, and while the novelty lasted, vis- 
itors wex-e attracted to the falls to hear the clink of the machine and view 
the continual dropping of the nails. 

The next company that was formed commenced business with promis- 
ing aspects upon a large capital. This was the Thames Manufacturing 
Co., incorporated in June, 1823. It consisted of six members, viz., Wm. 
C. Gilman, Samuel, Henry and John Hubbard, Wm. P. and Benjamin 
Greene. Five of these partners were Boston men, to whose favorable 
notice the water privileges that lay unemployed at the falls had been forc- 
ibly presented by Mr. Gilman. 

This company purchased the naillery and several other water privileges 
at the falls, and erected a large cotton-factory, preparing for a business of 
considerable extent and value. The corner-stone of the building was laid 
with interesting ceremonies, and Judge Goddard delivered an address, 
welcoming the new company to that secluded seat. 

William P. Greene, one of tiie Boston partners, became a resident in 
2forwich,* and for a few years Mr. Greene and William C. Gilman trans- 
: acted together the business of the company. Mr. Greene then resigned, 
and Ml'. Gilman was afterward the sole agent of the concern. 

The Quinebaug Co., for the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, 
was chartered in 1826. The mill erected by this company on the She- 
tucket river was purchased by the Thames Co. before it went into ope- 
ration, and was considered by its new owners as the most valuable of their 
possessions. This mill was the beginning of Greeneville. 

The Thames Co. purchased likewise the mill at Bozrahville, built by 
Messrs. Dodge and Hyde in 1815, and in their best days had the three 
mills, — in Bozrah, at the Falls, and on the Shetucket, — in successful 
operation. 

Another company with similar objects and expectations, called the Nor- 
wich & New York Manufacturing Co., was incorporated in 1829. Some 
of the partners belonged also to the Thames Co., but they were distinct 
. concerns. To this new incorporation the Thames Co. sold the Falls mUl. 
This company purchased also the mills and machinery of Huntington and 
Backus on Bean Hill. 

In 1833, a large cotton-mill, two paper-mills, an iron-foundry, nail-fac- 
! tory and rolling-mill were reported in successful operation at the Falls. 

But this prosperity was of short duration. Both the Thames Co. and 
the Norwich and New York Co. became involved in the mercantile dis- 

* The first purchase made .by the Boston Company was Jan. 25, 1823. William P. 
Greene purchased the Barrell property on Washington street, which ho made his home 
for the remainder of his life, May 17, 1824. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 613 

asters that so widely affected the business of the country, and went down 
in the financial crash of 1837. The two mills belonging to the Thames 
Co. were purchased nominally by Mr. Gilman, — the mortgages nearly 
equaling the value, — and conveyed by him to other parties : the Quine- 
baug mill to Mr. Caliph/ and the mill at Bozrah to Mr. James Boorman 
of New York. 

A period of great depression and stagnation of business ensued. 

Fresh undertakings of a more enduring nature arose out of these re- 
verses. Two new companies were formed under the auspices of Wm. P. 
Greene, — the Shetucket Co. and the Norwich Falls Co. Both went into 
prosperous operation between 1838 and 1842. 

The Shetucket Co. purchased the misnamed Quinebaug mill on the 
Shetucket. The building was burnt down in May, 1842, and the present 
mill, of far greater capacity, standing on the same spot, is called the She- 
tucket mill. It is the great cotton-mill of Greeneville. 

The Falls Co. purchased the mill at the Falls, which had formerly 
belonged to the Thames Co. This has since been enlarged to almost 
three times its former size and power, and has kept on from that time to 
the present, without any suspension of its activity or check to its pros- 
perity. 

These companies were established by Mr. Greene, chiefly upon his own 
credit, and were kept while he lived under his management and direction. 
The business has been gradually extending, and for several years each 
mill has had 15,000 spindles in operation. 

The manufacture of paper at the Falls has of late years been connected 
exclusively with the name of Hubbard. Amos H. Hubbard entered into 
the business in 1818. Paper was at that time made in the old way ; not 
by machinery, but by hand, sheet by sheet. Mr. Hubbard very soon fur- 
nished his establishment with the modern improvements that diminish the 
amount of manual labor required. In 1830 he successfully inti'oduced 
Fourdrinier's machine into his factory. This was the first paper-making 
machine used in Norwich. 

The brothers Russell and A. H. Hubbard were in partnership in this 
business for twenty years, but dissolved in 1857. They had two mills, — 
the old wooden building erected by Messrs. Huntington and Bushnell in 
1790, and a modern one, built of brick and stone, both of which, with 
various lots, tenements, and water-privileges, were sold by A. H. Hubbard 
in 18 GO to the Falls Company. 

Mr. Hubbard then removed his establishment to Greeneville on the 
Shetucket. 

According to the census of 18 GO, the great cotton-mill at the Falls em- 
ployed 125 males and 375 females; producing annually six and a half 
million yards, valued at $450,000. 



614 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The Falls Company has from time to time purchased the various priv- 
ileges in its neighborhood, and now controls nearly the whole water-power 
at Yantic Falls, and at the old paper-mill above the falls. The nailleries, 
foundries, pistol-factories, the paper, flour and oil-mills, have all disap- 
peared, their seats and privileges passed over to this company, and their 
various crafts transferred to other localities. In this valley of the roaring 
waters, in 1860, Cotton reigned the sole and undisputed king. 

This sovereignty has been recently invaded by the occupation of a hith- 
erto unemployed mill-seat near the railroad bridge. Here a large brick 
building, erected by C. A. Converse in 1864, furnishes accommodation to 
a grist-mill and the thriving cork-factory of Messrs. J. H. Adams and 
James E. Learned. 

The cork-cutting business is one of the specialties of Norwich ; this 
being the place where an ingenious machine for transforming sheets of 
bark into well-shaped corks was invented and set in operation, and where 
the business is prosecuted with a success that promises to make it one of 
the permanent industrial pursuits of the town. 

The corks used in this country had been mostly imported from Europe, 
where they were all made by hand. Vast quantities were required to 
supply the market, and a machine that would abridge the labor and 
cheapen the article was a desideratum. This is furnished by the machines 
invented and patented by the brothers Crocker of Norwich. 

William R. Crocker, the first inventor, after many experiments, brought 
his machine into successful operation, and procured a patent for it, bearing 
the date of Oct. 30, 1855. This machine produced from twenty to thirty 
finished corks per minute, turning them out in better condition than those 
made by hand. In 1859 the inventor went to Europe, accompanied by a 
younger brother, to dispose of rights in his patent. On their return in 
the steamer Hungarian, they both perished in the wreck of that vessel on 
the coast of Newfoundland, Feb. 15, 1860. 

But the business of cork-cutting, commenced by them in Norwich, has 
been continued by Messrs. Barnes & Spalding, the proprietors of their 
patented machine. 

Another machine of different structure, but for the same purpose, was 
invented by a third brother, John D. Crocker, and patented in 1862. 
This patent is the one employed in the factory at Yantic Falls. 

Tineas Mill. In the early part of the century, at Bean Hill, in a turn 
of the Yantic and on both sides of it, we find a grist-mill of ancient date, 
the fulling-mill and carding-machine of Erastus Huntington and Eber 
Backus, the stone-ware factory of Armstrong & Wentworth, and the 
machine-shop of James Burnham. Mr. Burnham constructed carding- 
machines, looms, and other kinds of machinery, but died on the island of 
Madeira in 1813. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 616 

The establishment of Huntington & Backus was purchased in 1828 for 
$9,000, by a company organized that year and called the Norwich Manu- 
facturing Co. This company established a woolen-mill on the premises, 
since known as the Uncas Woolen Mill. The ownership has since been 
several times changed. In 1859, F. B. Loomis, proprietor, the census 
reported the annual produce 150,000 yards of doeskins, valued at $175,- 
000. Mr. Loomis sold out in 18 GO to Wm. Elting & Co. The Elting 
Woolen Company has since been organized with a capital of $150,000. 

Another woolen-mill, at a lower point on the river in Norwich-Town, 
was run for several years by Peter Lanman. The site is now occupied 
by a mill of larger size and a group of neat tenements built by A. T. 
Sturtevant. 



Tantic. 

The village of Yantic lies in the western part of the town, close upon 
the borders of Bozrah and Franklin. At this point, just where the roads 
from Colchester and Windham meet and run together, a mill-dam and 
pond, a saw-mill, grist-mill, and carding-machine, with the usual gearing 
and machinery, had been gradually gathered into a group, and in the early 
part of the present century were owned by Uriah Tracy. 

These improvements were purchased in different parcels, from 1818 to 
1822, by John and George Tisdale, who added a factory and a stone 
dwelling-house to the premises, and began the manufacture of cotton 
cloth. The Tisdales were agents, or trustees, in this business, of Robert 
R. Baker, a native of Scotland, who had spent some time in Norwich, 
and seems to have formed the design of investing his capital in the busi- 
ness of the place, and enrolling himself as a regular inhabitant. After a 
few years, Mr. Barker, while traveling, it is said, in the western part of 
New York, suddenly disappeared, and his fate was never ascertained. 
The Yantic mill was subsequently sold, to clear off its mortgages and 
indebtedness, and purchased by Capt. Erastus Williams, who greatly en- 
larged the original building, and devoted it wholly to the manufacture of 
woolen goods. E. Winslow Williams, only son of Capt. Erastus Williams, 
is the present proprietor. 

The aspect of the country in this neighborhood has been softened by 
the improvements of modern times. It was naturally a wild and frown- 
ing district, dark with impending woods, and intersected by a turbulent 
stream. The village consists at the present day of the Williams flannel 
factory, with its various tenements, appurtenances, and surroundings ; a 
fair proportion of mechanics and shops for merchandise, a group of pri- 
vate houses, a post-ofhce, a school-house, an Episcopal organization called 
Grace Chapel, and about 300 inhabitants. 



616 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The census of 1860 reported 110 persons employed in the mill, — 75 
males and 35 females, and the annual value of products $150,000. This 
mill, with all its machinery, stock, and engines, and an adjoining house 
that accommodated eight families, was destroyed by fire. May 26, 1865. 
The older part of the mill had stood for nearly fifty years, and the flames 
performed their work with great facihty, lighting up the hills and woods 
like an amphitheatre, and startling the village with showers of flaming 
cinders. The loss, though very heavy, served only as a stimulus to more 
enlarged enterprise. The corner-stone of a new structure, far more capa- 
cious than the former, to be built of stone, four stories high, with towers 
and wings, and furnished with all the mechanical conveniences and safe- 
guards invented by modern science, was laid Aug. 16th, less than three 
months after the conflagration. This mill is designed for twelve sets of 
machinery. 

The village of Yantic furnished an honorable roll of volunteers in the 
war for the Union ; and among them, one, — Capt. John McCall, — who 
poured out his life on the banks of James river, and by his patriotism, 
valor, and heroic death, has left a name for his native hills to cherish. 



Bozrahville. 

Pursuing our course along the Yantic, but still keeping within the nine- 
miles-square, we meet with the manufacturing villages of Bozrahville and 
Fitchville, both within the present town of Bozrah. 

Bozrahville is one of the oldest manufacturing establishments in the 
county of New London. It originated with the Bozrah Manufacturing 
Co., which was formed in 1814 by Frederick DePeyster, Jonathan Little 
and others of New York, and David L. Dodge, then a resident of Nor- 
wich.* The capital came from New York, but Mr. Dodge suggested and 
managed the undertaking. Under his direction a stone factory was built 
for the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, several hundred spindles 
and looms set to work, and a thriving village planted in a waste place. 
Erastus Hyde of Bean Hill was also a partner and agent in this work. 

In consequence of the great influx of European commodities, which 
caused the decline of the manufacturing interest all over New England, 
the Bozrahville Co. was broken up in 1824, and the property passed into 
the possession of the Thames Co., but the mill was kept in operation with 
only the suspension of a few months. 

In 1837 it was sold by the Thames Co. to James Boorman and others 

* " Five of us together (says Mr. Dodge) purchased a site for a cotton manufactory 
in the north-west corner of Bozrah, in the valley of the Yantic, six miles from Norwich 
town, obtained a liberal charter," &c. Autobiography of D. L. Dodge. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 617 

of New York, who, under the title of the Kent Manufacturing Co.,* are 
the present proprietors. B. F. Tompkins, one of the partners, has had 
the chief agency of the company from its beginning. This mill is de- 
voted to the production of cotton goods. 



Fitchville. 

Of the village of Fitchville, its mill, its church, and its founder, we 
have heretofore spoken. Since that notice was written, (page 438,) the 
plans and labors of Mi'. Fitch have been brought to a sudden close. He 
died Oct. 30, 1865, aged seventy-eight years and a half. 

Few persons have had a more eventful life than Mr. Asa Fitch. As a 
youth, he was pallid and slender, often prostrated by sickness, and subject 
to distressing turns of the asthma, — a difficulty that clung to him through 
life. Sustained by his mental energy, he tried in succession, study at an 
academy in Lebanon, a clerkship in Norwich, and a mechanical trade, but 
broke down after each experiment. At the age of eighteen, in the hope 
of invigorating his constitution by a sea- voyage, he embarked as a passen- 
ger in the brig Walter, Capt. Brown, of New Haven, bound on a fishing 
and trading voyage to Green Island, Newfoundland, and Europe. 

He landed from this vessel at Lisbon, just before the news reached that 
city of the battle of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson, that is, in 
October, 1805. Finding the climate of southern Europe favorable to his 
health, he went from Lisbon to Alicant, and at first obtained employment 
in the office of the American consul. He remained nearly ten years at 
Alicant, occupied in mercantile affiiii's ; coming home on a short visit in 
1809, to establish some commercial relations, and gradually acquiring the 
reputation of a substantial merchant. 

Li 1814 he removed to Marseilles, and there established a commission 
and banking house that soon became known and recognized as a link in 
the chain of commerce between France and the United States. It was 
patronized by the French Government at the outset. While at Alicant, 
Mr. Fitch had accommodated several of the royal exiles in certain mone- 
tary affiiirs, and now that they had returned to power, they displayed a 
commendable appreciation of his courtesy. He was welcomed to the best 
society in France, and often entertained at his table in Marseilles, nobles, 
statesmen and literary men of the first reputation in the country. 

Being joined by his brother, Douglas Fitch, and his nephew, William 
D. Lee, the house took the firm of Fitch, Brothers & Co. Vessels from 
most of the large ports in the United States were consigned to this house. 
They were also agents of the U. S. Navy, furnishing supplies and making 

* So called in remembrance of Kent County, England, of which the chief partners 
are natives. 



618 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

payments to the government vessels in the Mediterranean. They exe- 
cuted orders from America for the purchase of French goods, and had 
correspondents in the United States to receive consignments of French 
produce from the merchants and manufacturers in France. In this round 
of business, important interests were involved. 

In 1828, Mr. Fitch left Marseilles and returned to America, in order to 
take charge of the affairs of the house on this side of the Atlantic. On 
the voyage he came near death through the entire prostration caused by 
continued sea-sickness, and never afterwards could be induced to cross the 
ocean. In New York, his office, with the sign of Fitch & Co., was in 
Exchange street. Here he embarked in a large real estate investment, 
purchasing several lots on Broadway, New and Exchange streets, upon 
which he subsequently erected stores, the rents of which were like a bank 
of wealth to the proprietor. 

Withdrawing gradually from personal attention to the details of business, 
Mr. Fitch at length retired to his native place, and for the last twenty-five 
years has been assiduously occupied in the laborious improvement of a 
naturally rough and forbidding country district. Sitting down by the side 
of the old iron-works where his father and his elder brother had wrought, 
he built a mansion-house, a cotton-mill, a grist-mill, a church, a village, 
and purchased farm after fai-m, until his domain could be measured by 
miles, expending in these various plans and operations six or seven hund- 
red thousand dollars. 

A characteristic of Mr. Fitch was his ceaseless activity. In body and 
mind he was alike energetic and alert. It was owing to this, and to his 
rigid attention to diet and regimen, that he lived so long, bearing up under 
complicated infirmities, and accomplishing so much actual labor. He was 
wonderful in planning, constructing and laying out work. The lives of 
such persons are full of action and incident ; they make changes and im- 
provements ; they are benefactors to their race, but undertaking too much, 
they do not finisli as they go, and often leave their most cherished projects 
incomplete. 

Mr. Fitch was unmarried ; of nine brothers and sisters, he was the 
only one that entered into no matrimonial connection. 



Greeneville. 

The Water Power Company was incorporated in 1828, "for building a 
dam and canal in order to bring the waters of the Shetucket river into 
manufacturing use." The sum of $43,000 was first subscribed by twenty- 
seven persons, Wm. P. Greene being the largest subscriber. The trustees 
were Calvin Goddard, Jedidiah Perkins, and George Perkins. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 619 

Mr. Greene had previously purchased the land in various parcels of 
different individuals : on the Quinebaug above the union with the She- 
tucket, and on the latter river from Sachem's Plain downwards, nearly 
tliree miles in extent, on either side of the river, in Norwich and Preston* 

The west side of the river was an old Reynolds farm, — a grant to John 
Reynolds, one of the first proprietors of the town. It was here, just over 
the river on the Preston side, that the younger John Reynolds and Josiah 
Rockwell were killed by the Indians in 1676. A portion of this land 
was still held as inherited estate, and was purchased by Mr. Gi'eene of 
Joseph Reynolds of North Kingston, R. I. The Lewis farm, bought by 
Mr. Greene in June, 1826, had been owned by a Reynolds until 1815.* 
On the Preston side, the Holden, Spicer, Truman and other lots had been 
procured. These were all conveyed to the company. 

The Shetucket dam was built of solid masonry, and a canal dug forty- 
five feet wide, nine feet deep, and seven-eighths of a mile in extent. The 
village of Greeneville was laid out by this company, and the land sold and 
leased on advantageous terms. Large factories for the manufacture of 
cotton goods, paper, flannel and carpets sprang up with great celerity, and 
tliis lonely river side started almost at once into a populous and thriving 
village. 

Various important changes have since taken place in the business of 
Greeneville. Factories for the production of certain articles have been 
established, and after a season of prosperity have declined and been relin- 
quished. But other industrial pursuits have been ready to take their 
place, and the population and resources of the village have steadily 
increased. 

The Shetucket mill has been already mentioned. It is now the only 
cotton-mill at Greeneville. It employs 150 males and 300 females. 
Annual product valued at $400,000. A dyeing establishment is con- 
nected with the mill, and the goods produced are mostly colored or stripes. 
About eighty acres of land belong to this mill. 

Greeneville has been particularly noted for the manufocture of paper. 

The paper-mill of A. H. Hubbard, removed from the Falls in 1860, 
employs about fifty hands, and is devoted to the production of colored 
paper. 

The paper-mill of the Chelsea Manufacturing Co., at Greeneville, pro- 
duces that description of paper which is used for books and newspapers. 
In 1860, when this mill was in operation to its full extent, it was claimed 
to be the largest paper-making establishment, not only in the United 
States, but the largest in the world. 

The principal building is 375 feet in length, and several detached 

* The house on this farm was the only family residence which then occupied the seat 
of the present Greeneville, wliich has a population of 3000 or more. 



620 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

buildings for various operations are connected with the works. There are 
twenty-six engines for grinding and cleansing the rags, and six for con- 
verting the pulp into paper. 

According to the census of 1860, it employed 75 males and 105 females, 
and the annual value of product was estimated at $475,000. A large pro- 
portion of the operatives worked twelve hours on and twelve hours off, that 
is, from 12 A. M. to 12 P. M., or vice versa, and the mill was kept in ope- 
ration from Monday, 1 o'clock A.M., to Saturday, 11 o'clock P. M. 

Messrs. David Smith of Norwich, and J. C. Rives, former publisher of 
the Congressional Globe at Washington, D. C, were for many years 
prominent proprietors of the Chelsea paper-mill, and under their control 
it achieved its greatest results. It was sold in 1862 to E. G. Bartow.* 
Other changes have since taken place in the ownership, and the mill has 
declined from its former flourishing condition. Laden with incumbrances 
and under assignment, it was sold at auction in March, 1865, and the 
equity of redemption purchased at a price very far below the original cost 
of the works. 



Occom Company. 

The capabilities of the lower valley of the Quinebaug and Shetucket 
rivers, as they approach tide-water, for manufacturing pursuits, have long 
been known and acknowledged, but they have hitherto been only partially 
developed and improved. The tradition is apparently authentic, that the 
elder Mr. Slater made an exploring visit to this region about the year 
1805, and was satisfied with its water-power and adaptability to manufac- 
turing purposes, but meeting with no cordial appreciation or readiness of 
co-operation from the merchants and capitalists, he turned back to Rhode 
Island, and fixed upon Slaterville as the site of the second cotton-mill in 
America. Norwich was then expending her energies in commerce, and 
had given but little attention to those sources of wealth that were treas- 
ured among her hills and along her water-courses. 

Of late years, the demands of the manufacturing interest have stimu- 
lated enterprise, and led to the development of a large amount of unem- 
ployed water-power within our bounds. Business, population and ma- 
chinery are gradually winding their way, guided by noisy streams, into 
the secluded haunts of the neighborhood, and eating out the heart of our 
most picturesque scenery. But this is a cause for congratulation, and not 
for complaint. The dash of falling waters, the songs of birds, and the 
roar of winds among the trees of the forest, may be more pleasing to the 
ear and imagination than the thunder and clang of looms and wheels, yet 

* Mr. Elves and Mr. Bartow both died during the year 1864. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 621 

it is a part of the mission of objects of taste to yield gracefully to those 
imperative interests that provide occupation for industry, markets for 
farmers, and comfortable homes for the multitude. 

The Wequonuck Company* was formed in 1845, with a small capital of 
$8000, by Charles Bliss and others, for the purpose of occupying what 
has been called the Bliss privilege on the Shetucket river, not far from ' 
Eagleville. The rights thus obtained were not used by the company, 
and the charter lay dormant for nearly twenty years. A great difficulty, 
which long obstructed operations in this district, has been removed by the 
passage of a flowage law by the Legislature in 1864. 

The Occom Company, on a much larger scale than the Wequonuck, 
was organized Oct. 14, 1864, chiefly through the exertions of Messrs. 
Moses Pierce and L. W. Carroll. The sum of $100,000 was subscribed 
by twenty individuals, and the charter authorizes an increase of capital to 
a million. 

To this company the Wequonuck Co. assigned all their rights and pi'iv- 
ileges. Tliis, with other purchases, gave them about 800 acres of land in 
Norwich and Lisbon, and the control of the whole water-power — 44 feet — 
between the Greeneville dam and Sprague. These privileges have been 
divided into two sections, with the center or seat of water-power in each, 
two miles apart. 

The upper privilege of fourteen feet is about two miles from Sprague. 
Here a dam of solid stone-work has been built, 800 feet long, connected 
with a rolling-way of 300 feet. Canals are begun each side of the river, 
and two extensive woolen -mills, with all the necessary appendages of fac- 
tory villages, are in progress. 

The mill nearest the dam, — that of Joseph H. Converse «S= vSon, — is 
built of stone, three stories high, and designed for six sets of machinery. 
The other, also of stone, to be four stories high, with seven sets of ma- 
chinery, is owned by a company of which R. G. Hooper is the general 
agent. 

The lower privilege of the Occom Co., — 30 feet, — has been sold, with 
550 acres of land, to Messrs. Taft & Co. of Providence, who design to 
make it the seat of a large cotton-factory. 

When these prospective works are completed, it will make a cordon of 
mills and mill-villages in the eastern and southern part of Norwich, some 
of them large enough for independent towns, five in number, and two miles 
apart, viz.: 

Sprague, Greeneville, 

Occom, Norwich Falls. 

Tafts, 

* Wequonuck, (abbreviated by the first settlers to Quonuck,) is the Indian name for 
the low land on the Shetucket, above and below the junction of the Quiuebaug. 



622 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Fire-Arms. 

The war of the rebellion, while it depressed some of the industrial 
interests of the jilace, gave a great impetus to the manufacture of fire- 
arms. Attempts had been several times made to establish large factories 
for pistol-making in Norwich. 

The most considerable undertaking of this kind was that of Messrs. 
Allen & Thurber, (Ethan Allen and Charles Thurber,) who set up a 
pistol-factory at the Falls in 1842. They made revolving pistols, weigh- 
ing about a pound and a half each, firing six balls in less than six seconds. 
After a few years this company removed their establishment, with its 
operatives and their families, to Worcester. 

In 1853, Smith & Weston established a rifle and pistol factory upon 
Central Wharf, and in 1854 secured a patent for a volcanic repeating 
pistol, but finding themselves restricted in point of room for their opera- 
tions, they removed to New Haven, where a company was formed to pur- 
sue the business on a larger scale. 

The Bacon Manufacturing Co. next made its appearance in the city, 
adding a considerable number of mechanics to the population. The pis- 
tols of this company were the only fire-arms made in Norwich when the 
war commenced ; but mechanical enterprise soon took a sudden turn in 
that direction. 

In January, 1862, James D. Mowry contracted to furnish the Govern- 
ment with 30,000 rifle muskets of the latest Springfield construction. 
The barrels were made at Cole & Walker's, (Franklin street,) the locks by 
C. B. Rogers & Co. of West Chelsea, and other pieces at Mowry's flictory 
in Greeneville. 

The Norwich Arms Co. was stimulated into existence by the war, and 
soon grew to gigantic proportions, filling euccessive contracts and furnish- 
ing large supplies of musketry for the Government. This company had 
two establishments : one on Franklin street, (occupying the premises of 
Horace Walker,) where the barrels and bayonets were made,) and the 
other near the Shetucket, for the department of stocks and locks. They 
made, besides the Springfield musket, a new kind of improved rifle, the 
invention of Messrs. Armstrong & Taylor of Augusta, Ky. In this pro- 
cess each gun is composed of forty-nine parts, each part accurately fitting 
its place in any other of the guns. Any barrel will fill any stock ; any 
screw will enter any hole for which it is designed ; and out of the heaps 
of finished parts a musket can be put together with great ease and celer- 
ity. The completed instrument weighs ten pounds. This company had 
a wonderful accumulation of machinery for its various operations, and 
hundreds of artizans were employed, regulating the machines and attend- 
ing upon them as they threw out their millions of pieces with rapidity and 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 623 

precision.* Heavy reports like thunder came from the proving-room, 
where the barrels Avere tested. They were loaded with heavy charges, 
and tired by a train, discharging the balls into banks of earth prepared to 
receive them. 

The cessation of the war brought this establishment to a sudden close. 
The company failed, and the usual results of a great failure succeeded. 
The machinery stopped, the workmen were disbanded, the property was 
sacrificed at auction, and this great manufactory of warlike instruments, 
that at one time occupied a large space in the public interest, now belongs 
wholly to the history of the past. 



Miscellaneous Notices. 

The industrial pursuits of Norwich are continually increasing in num- 
ber, variety, and value. They are too numerous and variable to be cir- 
cumstantially described. We can only briefly notice a few which belong 
to the history of the past, or in which some new and interesting principle 
is involved. 

Abner T. Pearce was at one time extensively engaged in the manufac- 
turing business in Norwich. He had a large foundry and car -factory in 
the place, and was also concerned in a car-factory near the eastern term- 
inus of the Erie Railroad. In the year 1853, he suddenly failed and 
absconded. After assigning his property and leaving the place, it was 
ascertained that he had issued spurious paper to a very large amount, and 
had pursued his business by means of forged signatures for several years. 
He fled to California, and afterward to South America, where, according 
to report, he died in 1864. 

Christopher C. Brand in 1852 obtained a patent for a newly-invented 
whaling-gun and bomb-lance. A musket three feet long discharges a gun 
twelve feet in length, which strikes and soon explodes. A spacious brick 
building to accommodate these works was erected on Franklin street in 
18 GO. ^ 

Tlie manufacture of sewing-machines of the Howe patent was com- 
menced by Greenman & True, on Central Wharf, in 18G0. This estab- 
lishment brouglit a considerable increase of population to the city. 

A steam flouring mill, having a fifty-horse-powci*, was established on 
Central Wharf by Capt. W. W. Coit in 1855. 

The Union Machine Co., Franklin street, and Caleb B. Rogers & Co., 
machinists, in West Chelsea, are companies organized on the joint-stock 
principle, with each a capital of $200,000. 

* An interesting description of this Norwich Arnaory, with illustrations, was pub- 
lished in Harper's Magazine for March, 1864. 



624 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

At the southern extremity of the city we find the rolling-mill and other 
works of the Messrs Mitchell, bearing the company name of the Thames 
Iron Works. At Greeneville, near the eastern border of the city, is the 
Norwich Bleaching and Calendering Co., which has been many years in 
operation, employing many hands, but is now enlarging its works and 
preparing for a business of greater extent. 

Between these, the City and the Falls are studded with manufacturing 
establishments of greater or less extent, far too numerous to be described. 
They spread also into the town-plot. 

In this connection we must not fail to notice a stock company which has 
its seat on the western border of the town. Though as yet of no product- 
ive value, as a curious item of history, it must not be overlooked. 

The Waweekus Hill Mining Company was first formed in 1851, and 
has since been organized with a capital stated at $500,000 ; Jesse Fill- 
more of Providence, President. This company is based upon the suppo- 
sition that the rocks where it is located contain gold, silver and nickel, and 
a lease for 100 years of about 100 acres of land, covering the location, 
has been obtained. 

The idea of the metalliferous quality of the rocks was first suggested 
by G. M. Roberts, a young man whose attention was arrested to the sub- 
ject by what seemed to him a smell of sulphur when the rock was broken. 
Reuben Saflford, the agent of the company, has dwelt for a considerable 
time alone upon the premises, and has made repeated essays in digging 
and exploring the bed of rocks, where the mine is supposed to be situated. 
The smelting and reclaiming process has pot been initiated, and no pure 
metal has yet been discovered or produced. 



CHAPTER L. 

Mayors of the City. 

Norwich was one of the five cities incorporated by the Legislature of 
Connecticut in May, 1784. It included Bean Hill, the Falls, the Town- 
plot, and Chelsea. The Mayor was at first chosen for an indefinite term. 
The succession is as follows : 

1. Benjamin Huntington, LL. D. Elected July, 1784 ; in ofiice twelve 
years; resigned in 1796. 

This first Mayor of the City was one of the most honored and honor- 
able men of that period, — a statesman of incorruptible integi'ity, conspic- 
uous for his patriotic service in the town, state, and general government. 
He was a State Counsellor during the Revolutionary war ; member of the 
Continental Congress in 1784, and of the Constitutional Congress in 1789, 
and in 1793 was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. 
In every station he was popular and faithful. His family was an attract- 
ive social center, but the members all removed to other scenes, several of 
his children gathering families around them at Rome, N .Y. Judge Hunt- 
ington himself removed thither in 1796, and there died Oct. 16, 1800. 
His remains were brought to Norwich and laid by those of his wife, who 
was a daughter of Col. Jabez Huntington of Windham. The degree of 
LL. D. was conferred upon him by Yale College, where he graduated in 
1761. 

2. John McLaran Breed. Elected in April, 1796; two years in office. 
He died May 31, 1798, aged 50. 

Mr. Breed was a distinguished lawyer, noted for enterprise, benevo- 
lence, and public spirit. In improvements of the city, made in the way 
of bridges, streets, wharves, and buildings, he took a leading part. His 
death in the prime of usefulness and activity was lamented as a public 
loss. 

3. Elisha Hyde. Elected in June, 1798 ; in office fifteen years ; died 
Dec. 16, 1813, in the 63d year of liis age. 

40 



626 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Mayor Hyde was a lawyer of good repute, universally popular in his 
native town for Ms urbanity, genial temperament, and overflowing benev- 
olence of heart. His wife, who was a daughter of Amos Hallam of New 
London, long survived her husband, and died at Black Eock, N. Y., Aug. 
26, 1841, aged 87. They had two daughters, — the youngest, Ann Maria, 
died soon after her father, at the age of 24. Of this young person, lovely 
and beloved, a memoir, written by the companion of her youth, — Miss 
Huntley, afterward Mrs. Sigourney, — was published. The eldest daugh- 
ter, Sarah, born in 1776, married Capt. Z. P. Burnham, and is now (1866) 
residing with her son at Newstead, Erie Co., N. Y. She has been fifty- 
six years a widow. 

4. Calvin Goddard. Elected in February, 1814; in office seventeen 
years ; resigned in 1831 ; died May 2, 1842, aged nearly 74 years. 

Judge Goddard was a native of Shrewsbury, Mass., and a graduate of 
Dartmouth College. He settled at Plainfield in the practice of the law 
in 1791, and served as member of Congress for two sessions, from 1801 
to 1805. He removed to Norwich in 1807, where he purchased for his 
residence the Dunham house, which included in its grounds the burial- 
place of the Mohegan sachems. In 1815, he was appointed a Judge of 
the Supreme Court. He was a man of honorable character and high 
attainments. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Levi Hart of Preston, 
and a grand-daughter of Dr. Bellamy. Charles, oldest son of Calvin 
Goddard, removed to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1817. 

Since 1831, the Mayor has been elected annually. 

5. James Lanman. Elected June 6, 1831 ; in office three years. 

Mr. Lanman was born in Norwich, June 14, 1769 ; graduated at Yale 
College in 1788, and chose the law for his profession, in which he soon 
acquired distinguished rank, and successively filled various important pub- 
lic offices. He was Senator in Congress from 1819 to 1825, and for three 
years Judge of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. He died Aug. 7, 
1841, aged 72. He was the oldest son of the first Peter Lanman of Nor- 
wich. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Samuel Coit of Preston. 

6. Francis Asher Perkins : 1834; one year. 

Mr. Perkins entered early upon a mercantile life, and experienced its 
usual vicissitudes of alternate success and disappointment. He was at 
one period a broker in Boston, and during the latter years of his life, suc- 
cessively cashier of the Norwich Bank and treasurer of the Savings 
Society. Through life he was devoted to the interests of religion and 
humanity. Upright in conduct, with a genial disposition and well-culti- 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 627 

vated mind, he kept on fresh and serene to the last, a beloved officer in 
the church, a diligent student and acceptable teacher of Bible truth. He 
died March 27, 18G3, aged 78. His father, Hezekiah Perkins, died in 
1822. His mother, Sarah Fitch, was a grand-daughter of Joseph Fitch, 
the eighth son of the revered founder of the Norwich Church. 

Mr. Perkins was the last Mayor over the old city, whose limits were 
coincident with those of the town. 

7. Charles "W. Rockwell. Elected in 1835 ; in office three years ; 
chosen again in 1846. ^ 

8. Charles James Lanman ; 1838, one year. 

Mr. Lanman is a son of Senator Lanman, fifth Mayor of the city. He 
resided a few years in Norwich, but has since removed. 

9. William C. Oilman;* 1839, one year. 

Mr. Gilman was a native of Exeter, N. H., and was first initiated into 
mercantile pursuits in Boston, but nearly thirty years of the most active 
and energetic portion of his life were spent in Norwich. 

As a man of business he was acute in perceiving capabilities and ardent 
in the presentation of them to others ; always prompt and persevering in 
promoting plans and pursuits calculated to develop the resources or ad- 
vance the moral and religious interests of the community. 

The period of Mr. Oilman's residence in Norwich was marked not only 
by the stimulus given to manufactures at the Falls and on the Shetucket, 
and the increase of business in general, but by fresh interest in the cause 
of temperance, improvements in churches, and the establishment of Sab- 
bath Schools. All these undertakings were deeply indebted not only to 
his forecast, but to his advocacy and personal service. 

Mr. Gilman was also a man of taste and research ; one who delighted 
in collecting memorials of the past, exploring the antiquities of the coun- 
try, and commemorating the old heroic Red men of the land. 

The failure of the large manufacturing companies witli which he had 
been connected, led the way to his removal fi'om Norwich about the year 
1845. The later years of his life were spent in New York, where he 
died June 6, 18G3. His remains were brought to Norwich for inter- 
ment. 

10. John Breed, 1840 ; in office two years, and elected again in 1845. 

* This was an exciting and waitnly contested election, — made so by political paxti- 
zanship. Meetings were held on the 3d, 10th and 14th days of June, and successive 
ballotings tried each day without resulting in a choice. The meeting was then ad- 
journed to the 24th, when the election was decided by 216 votes out of 378. 



628 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

11. William P. Greene, 1842 ; one year. 

Mr. Greene was a native of Boston, but an inhabitant of Norwich for 
more than forty years. He was the second son of Gardiner and Ehza- 
beth (Hubbard) Greene, and born Sept. 7, 1795. He graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1814, and afterward studied law, but his health not being 
equal to the requirements of the legal profession, he removed in 1824 to 
Norwich, and engaged at once in business, as a partner and agent of the 
Thames Manufacturing Co., which had invested a large capital in the 
purchase of mill privileges at the Falls. 

In this city he soon acquired and retained during life the esteem and 
respect of the community. He was an energetic and a lar^e-hearted 
man ; literary in his tastes, but with profound sagacity in financial and 
business concerns. These qualities were united with a pure life and an 
entire absence of ostentation. As a beautiful result of his unobtrusive 
life and liberal disposition, he seemed to have no enemies. Slander never 
made him its mark, and his name was never mentioned with disrespect. 

He was never possessed of robust health, and therefore seldom able to 
give his personal services in aid of public measures, but all charitable 
and noble undertakings having for their object the welfare of man and the 
honor of God were sure of his liberal aid and cordial sympathy. 

In 1825 he was chosen the first President of the Thames Bank, and 
held the ofiice for sixteen years. With this exception, and that of the 
single year in which he was Mayor of the city, he steadfastly declined, on 
account of his health, all appointments to public office. 

He died June 18, 1864, aged 68. Seldom has the death of a citizen 
excited in the place so deep an interest and such profound regret. It was 
a loss that was felt in the circles of business and of pubHc improvement : 
in the departments of education and philanthropy. 

12. Gurdon Chapman. Elected 1843 ; in office two years. 

Mr. Chapman died Jan. 18, 1859, aged 52. He was a native of Pres- 
ton, — a self-made man, by his own talent and industry acquiring property 
and influence. 

John Breed; re-elected 1845, one year. 

Mr. Breed was a eon of the second Mayor of the city. For more than 
half a century he has been known as a prominent merchant of Norwich, 
eno-aged chiefly in the hardware fine, but often entering into other depart- 
ments of business. The sign of ''John Breed ^ Co." representing the 
partnership of John Breed and his brother Simeon, was first displayed 
upon the store in Water street, where his father and grandfather had 
transacted business, the day that war was declared against Great Britain, 
June 19, 1812. Mr. Breed entered into several subsequent partnerships, 




%&.i;Perine.feC°K.^' 



-=Z=:zJ^^^ ^^^'^^ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. G29 

but whetlier the firm was Trumbull & Breed, John & James Breed, or 
Breed, Prentice & Co., the old sign of John Breed Sf Co. has been dis- 
played in conjunction with its successor, for more than fifty-three years, 
until it is regarded as one of the antiquities of the place. 

]Mi\ Breed had himself become so identified Avith the city, that he 
seemed a part of it, — always present at its public meetings, always inter- 
ested in the passing discussion, and always firm and downright in his posi- 
tions. He was a man of strong peculiarities and of impulsive character, 
with great originality and independence, carrying much of the vivacity of 
youth into the decline of life. Tall, with white locks, and wearing a white 
hat, every child knew him, and no face or form was more familiar to the 
inhabitants at large. 

His name is commemorated in Breed Hall, which was erected by him 
with the design of furnishing a convenient hall for lectures, concerts, and 
other large assemblies, and thus supplying a desideratum which the inter- 
ests of the city required. This building was completed in February, 1860, 
Mr. Breed died suddenly, Dec. 3, 1865, in his 75th year. 

Charles W. Rockwell, re-elected 1846 ; one year. 

Mr. Rockwell is a native of the town, but a large portion of his mature 
life has been spent in business at the South and West. While a resident 
here, — from 1830 to 1850, — he entered heartily into the duties of citizen- 
ship, and was distinguished for liberality and public spirit. All enter- 
prises calculated to advance the interests of the community in business, 
mental culture, physical comfort, and religious improvement, found in him 
a cordial advocate and patron. 

He was one of the original projectors of the Norwich and Worcester 
railroad ; forecasting its importance and embarking in its construction 
with an interest that merged his financial resources in the undertaking. 
This railroad, which has proved so beneficial to Norwich, was constructed 
at a period of such pecuniary pressure in the country, that those who 
engaged early in the work suffered severely in their private fortunes 
before it was completed. 

It is not often the case in this world, that they who expend their zeal 
and energies upon a great work, are the persons that reap the most ben- 
efit from it. They plan, and execute, and toil on with unceasing ardor to 
complete an undertaking, and then are swept aside, or pass away, while 
others enter into their labors, and enjoy that which costs them nothing. 
Thcx*e is nothing discouraging in this ; it rather ennobles measures which 
otherwise would be but sordid, — teaching the generous mind to enter upon 
its beneficial task, whether personal advantage accrue from it or not ; to 
do good, and pursue noble ends by noble means, without too solicitously 
expecting a reward, or indulging regret if it be withheld. 



630 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

13. John Dunham, 1847 ; in office two years. . ' 

14. "Wm. A. Buckingham, 1849 ; in office two years. 

15. La Fayette S. Foster, 1851 ; in office two years. "'' 

16. Erastus Williams, 1853 ; in office two years. 

17. Wm. L. Brewer, 1855 ; in office one year. 

Wm. A. Buckingham, re-elected 185G ; in office two years. 

18. Amos W. Prentice, 1858 ;* in office two years. 

19. James S. Carew, 1860 ; in office two years. 

20. James Lloyd Greene, 1862 ; still in office. 

This is the third instance in which the father and son have held the 
office ; the present Mayor being the son of the 11th. 

Of these twenty presiding officers, ten are yet on the stage of life, and 
the last eight are residents of the city, (January, 1866.) 



LL.D. 

This honorary degree has been conferred upon four citizens of Norwich. 

Governor Samuel Huntington received it from the two colleges of Dart- 
mouth and Yale. 

Benjamin Huntington, first Mayor of the City, from Yale. 

Henry Strong, also from Yale, " in testimony of his professional emi- 
nence." 

La Fayette S. Foster, from Brown University. 



Among the members of the legal profession, claimed by the town as 
natives, Henry Strong stands pre-eminent. As a lawyer and jurist, he 
was exact in detail, and yet profound and comprehensive ; acute in dis- 
cerning the truth amid complicated statements, and persistent in his exer- 
tions to clear up a doubtful point. It may justly be said that he imparted 
dignity and respectability to the profession, preserving in his legal busi- 
ness as counselor, arbiter, and advocate, the same unyielding integrity that 
marked his private life. Native ability, untiring industry, and adherence 
to principle, harmoniously wrought together, formed his character. 



* This was an exciting election. On the first day, 714 ballots were cast ; for A. "W. 
Prentice, 351. As this was not a majority, no choice was made. At the second meet- 
ing, 932 votes were polled; for Prentice, 492, which decided the election in his favor. 




^"S ? by Geo.E.Perme,Sew^^^ 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 631 

His disposition and habits were so retiring that his reputation was 
scarcely commensurate with his worth. He refused uniformly to be con- 
sidered a candidate for public office, otherwise the community would have 
assigned to him gladly the responsibilities and honors of high official 
trust. 

Mr. Strong graduated at Yale College in 1806, was for two years tutor 
in the institution, and at a subsequent period was invited to become a mem- 
ber of the faculty as professor of law, but decUned the appointment. He 
died Nov. 12, 1852. 



Presidential Electors from Norwich. 

Joshua Huntington, 1805, — 5th presidential election; Thomas Jefferson 
elected : opposition candidate, C. C. Pinckney. 

Calvin Goddard, 1813, — 7th presidential election; James Madison 
elected: opposition capdidate, DeWitt Clinton. 

Charles W. Rockwell, 1845,— 15th presidential election; James K. 
Polk elected : opposition candidate, Henry Clay. 

William A. Buckingham, 1857, — 18th presidential election; James 
Buchanan elected; opposition candidate, J. C. Fremont. 

In these four elections Connecticut gave her whole vote for the minority 
candidate. 



Members of Congress who ivere residents and citizens of Norwich, and Rep- 
resentatives of this part of Connecticut. 

1. Gov. Samuel Huntington, President of the Continental Congress. 

2. Judge Benjamin Huntington, of the Continental Congress, and also 
a member under the Constitution from 1789 to 1791. 

3. Calvin Goddard, M. C. from 1801 to 1805; afterward Judge of the 
Superior Court of Connecticut. 

4. General Ebenezer Huntington, an officer of the Revolution, — twice 
elected to Congress, in 1810 and again in 1817. 

5. James Lanman; U. S. Senator for six years, from 1819 to 1825. 

G. Jabez W. Huntington, M. C. from 1829 to 1834; U. S. Senator 
from 1840 to his death, — six years. Between these two periods of Con- 
gressional duty, he served as Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors and 
of the Superior Court of Connecticut. He died Nov. 1, 1847, aged 59. 
Senator Huntington was widely known and appreciated for his prudence, 
sagacity and decision as a counselor and judge. 

7. John A. Rockwell, M. C. from 1845 to 1849. Mr. Rockwell was 
for many years a successful practitioner in the Court of Claims at Wash- 



632 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

ington, and in connection with this branch of public business, digested and 
published a woi'k on Spanish and Mexican law. In political life he was 
more of a national man than a partizan ; a ti'ue lover of his country ; 
warmly interested in its past history, honoring its founders, and firmly 
believing in its high mission to expand the boundaries of knowledge and 
free government. He died at Washington, Feb. 10, 1861, aged 59. His 
remains v/ere interred at Norwich. 

8. La Fayette S. Foster, U. S. Senator since 1855. Mr. Foster is a 
native of FrankUn, born Nov. 22, 1806, and a graduate of Brown Uni- 
-\ ersity. As a lawyer and political orator, he has acquired an honorable 
reputation, and is j)articularly noted for the tact, decision and impartiality 
that are necessary to make a good presiding officer in large assemblies. 
This has been manifested in his public life, as Mayor of the City, chair- 
man of many political meetings. Speaker of the Connecticut House of 
Eepresentatives, and President pro tern, of the U. S. Senate. To this 
last office he was chosen at the first session of the 39th Congress, March 
6, 1865. 



The following members of Congress from other States are natives of 
Norwich, in its present limits : 

Phineai L. Tracy, from New York. "William Woodbridge, from Mich. 
Albert H. Tracy, " " Charles Miner, " Penn. 

Erastus Corning, " " Thomas L. Harris, " El. 

Abel Huntington, " " 



Decease of Persons connected with the Legal Profession. 

1. J. G. TV. Trumbull, a native of Lebanon, settled at Norwich in 1815 ; 
died Sept. 5, 1852, aged 65. 

2. Roswell Morgan, died July 12, 1853, aged 77. 

3. James Stedman, a native of Hampton, graduated at Yale in 1801» 
and remained as tutor for two years ; studied law with Theodore Dwight, 
and entered into practice at Norwich in 1806. He was for many years 
Clerk of the County Court. In private life he was social and hospitable; 
in his profession a wise and safe counselor, and in the church a revered 
and beloved officer. He died May 18, 1856, aged 76. 

4. George Bliss, County Sheriff, died at the old homestead of his an- 
cestors, in the town-plot, Sept. 12, 1857, aged 53. 

5. Asa Child, d. May 11, 1858, aged 59. 

6. George B. Ripley, Judge of the Probate Court, d. July 9, 1858. 

7. Levi H. Goddard, d. May 9, 1862, aged 53. 



• 




^A 






HISTORY OP NORWICH. 633 

8. Edmund Perkins, d. Aug. 2, 1865, aged 46. 

9. Joseph Williams, d. Nov. 28, 18G5, in the 87tli year of his age. 

Mr. Williams graduated at Yale College in 1798, in a class of twenty- 
one, and for several of the last years of his life his name was the only one 
in the catalogue of the class against which the ominous asterisk was not 
placed. He studied law in New Haven, and was in the office and family 
of the Hon. Simeon Baldwin at the time of the sudden decease of his 
father, Gen. Joseph WilHams, in October, 1800. He soon entered into 
practice in his native town, and his father having left a young family and 
an embarrassed estate, he was not only brother, but father, friend and 
guardian to the remainder of the household, administering to their welfare 
and success in life with duteous affection and persistent generosity. Dur- 
ing the sixty years that he had an office in the city, he held a great variety 
of public offices, and discharged the duties of each with fidelity and dis- 
cretion. In 1813-14, an exciting period of the war with Great Britain, 
Joseph Williams and Nathaniel Shipman were the calm, judicious men 
that the town sent to represent them in the Legislature. Mr. Williams 
was for a series of years the State agent for the Mohegaus, and in his 
retentive memory various interesting incidents, gathered in his intercourse 
with the tribe, were treasured. 

He was justice of the peace forty years ; alderman of the city twenty- 
two years ; the first secretary and treasurer of the Fire Insurance Com- 
pany, and held the office nearly fifty years, beginning with 1803 ; cashier 
of the Merchants' Bank upwards of forty years, and at the time of his 
death, president of the Norwich Savings Society, of which he was one of 
the original corpoi'ators. 

He was a member of the Congregational Church for thirty-five years, 
and in his conduct and conversation a consistent Christian.* 

Of the living members of the Norwich bar, the oldest on the list is 
Samuel C. Morgan. He is a native of Lisbon ; commenced practice in 
Jewett City in 1816, but has been for nearly thirty years a resident in 
Norwich. 

The whole number in the town, enrolled as attorneys at the present date, 
is nearly thirty. Those who have been in practice for thirty years or 
more, are 

George Perkins, John T. Adams, 

La Fayette S. Foster, John T. Wait. 

* Mr. Williams took a lively interest in the proposals of the author of this work to 
prepare a complete history of the town, and when the earlier pages went to the press, 
was still on the stage of life. It is a source of painful regret that many aged citizens 
from whose reminiscences so many interesting facts have been derived, should have 
passed away without sharing in the pleasure of seeing the finished work. 



634 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Physicians of Norwich, 

John Olmstead, (or Holmstead,) one of the first company of settlers from 
Saybrook in 1660 ; died in 1686. 

Samuel Ahell, oldest son of Caleb and Margaret (Post) Abell ; he died 
Nov. 21, 1731, aged 59. 

Solomon Tracy, a youth at the time of the settlement ; d. July 2, 1732, 
aged about 80. 

Caleb Bushnell, a native of the town ; d. Feb. 18, 1725, aged 46. 

Samuel Law, a transient resident, 1718-20. 

Robert Bell, from Ipswich ; father-in-law of Capt. John Fillmore ; died 
Aug. 23, 1727. 

David Hartshorn, from Reading, Mass., about 1700 ; settled at the "West 
Farms ; d. Nov. 3, 1738, aged 82. 

Elijah Hartshorn, also of the "West Farms, practising in 1780 and 
onward; d. in 1839, aged 85. 

John Sabin, of West Farms ; d. March 2, 1742, aged 46. 

Thomas Wbrden, d. 1759 ; he had probably been in practice more than 
thirty years. 

Christopher Huntington, son of that Christopher who was the first-born 
son of Norwich. He married for his first wife the daughter of Dr. Caleb 
Abell, and settled in the parish of New Concord. That he was a physi- 
cian we infer from the title of Doctor which was attached to his name in 
1718. 

Christopher Huntington, son of the above, born in 1719, died in 1800. 
A third Dr. Christopher Huntington, son of the last named, though a reg- 
ular and highly esteemed physician, does not pi'operly belong to our list, as 
he practised in Bozrah after it became a distinct town. 

Joseph Perkins, of Newent Society ; graduated at Yale College in 1727, 
and in 1729 was styled the town doctor. He was distinguished for surgical 
skill as well as for successful treatment of diseases. He died July 7, 1794, 
aged 90. 

Joseph Perkins, oldest son of the above, born in 1733, was also a prac- 
tising physician, studying with his father, but not taking a degree. He 
was the father of Major Joseph Perkins of Norwich, and died at the age 
of 37. 

Benjamin Wheat, from Cambridge, Mass., settled in Norwich as a phy- 
sician about 1730 ; died in 1758, aged 49. 

John Barker, of Norwich "West Farms, forty years in practice, and first 
President of the County Medical Society: He died June 13, 1791, aged 
62. A contemporary notice gives him credit for a "peculiar readiness to 
communicate for general information whatever his penetrating genius, per- 
severing observation and long experience had brought to view." 



\ 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 635 

Samuel H. Barker, of "West Farms ; d. June 11, 1794, in the 30th year 
of his age. 

" If worth and merit from death's jaws could save, 
Barker, our friend, had always shunned the grave." 

[Obituary verses by one of his pupils. 

TlieopMliis Rogers, a son of Capt. Ezekiel Rogers of Lynn, Mass., re 
moved to Norwich about 1720 ; d. Sept. 29, 1753, aged 54. 

Ezekiel Rogers, oldest son of the above, was prepared for the medical 
profession, but died at the age of 22. 

Theopldlus Rogers, Jr., Uke his brother, acquired his professional knowl- 
edge by study and practice with his father. His name stands first on the 
list of eleven physicians who in 1773 applied to the Legislature for per- 
mission to organize a State Medical Society. Dr. Rogers was afterwards 
President of the New London County Medical Association. He was 
highly esteemed, not only as a physician, but for public spirit and socia^ 
amenity. He was nearly fifty years in practice, and died Sept. 29, 1801, 
aged 70. 

Elisha Tracy, graduated at Yale College in 1738, and studied for his 
profession with the senior Dr. Rogers. He was eminently skillful in med- 
icine and surgery, and one of the earliest advocates for inoculation as a 
preventive of small pox. He died May 1, 1783, aged 71. 

Philemon Tracy, son to the above ; fifty-five years in practice, an able 
physician, faithful in his vocation, respected and beloved in the commu- 
nity, He was distinguished for his skill in the treatment of chronic dis- 
eases ; discriminating, thorough and attentive in all his professional duties. 
He died April 2G, 1837, aged 80. 

Elihu 3Iarvin, a native of Lyme ; student and son-in-law of the second 
Dr. Theophilus Rogers. He had been a lieutenant in the Revolutionary 
war, and was appointed brigadier-general of militia in 1793. He died of 
yellow fever in 1798, aged 45. 

Seth Marvin, a young physician who studied and practised in Norwich, 
but died at sea in the ship Hope in 1799. 

Jonathan Marsh, practised in Norwich ; joined the expedition against 
Crown Point as a surgeon in 1755 ; died in 17GG. -* ■^ / -^ • ■^■■ 

Jonathan Marsh, Jr., noted for surgical skill, and particularly in the line 
of bone-setting. He died April 17, 1798, aged 44. 

Elisha Lord, nephew of the Rev. Dr. Lord of the First Clun-ch. He 
served in the army on the Canadian frontier as a surgeon ; died March 1 6, 
1768, aged 40. 

Doctor Lodema, born in Norwich, March IG, 1759; died in Canterbury, 
Feb. 21, 1855, nearly 96 years of age. 

Richard Tozor, a student with Dr. Benjamin "V\nicat. He joined the 
Louisburg expedition in 1745, as surgeon's mate, and never returned. 



636 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Dominie Touzain. On the grave-stone of Col. John Durkee is the fol- 
lowing memorial : 

" In memory of Docf Dominie Touzain who was lost in a hurricane in March 1782 
in ye 3P' year of liis age." 

Benjamin Moore practiced a few years at the Landing. In 1793, he 
advertised that he was about to leave Norwich. He died in Demarara, 
not long afterward. 

Azov, son of Eliphalet Garew, a short time in practice, but went abroad 
for his health, and died on his passage from London to New York, Jan. 
18, 1800. 

Philip Turner, student and son-in-law of Dr. Elisha Tracy, surgeon- 
general of the Eastern department in the Revolutionary war. In the line 
of surgery he stood at the head of the medical faculty in this country. 
The credit has been awarded to him of being the first surgeon in America 
that performed the operation of tying the femoral artery. He died at New 
York in 1815, aged 75. 

John Turner, son of the above, a man of genial disposition and genuine 
benevolence ; as a physician, skillful and popular. He died May 7, 1837, 
aged 73. 

George W. Trott studied with Dr. Tracy, and was licensed by the Con- 
necticut Medical Society. His card, offering his services as a physician 
at Norwich, was dated Jan. 18, 1803. He soon removed to AVilkesbai're, 
Penn. 

Benjamin Butler studied with Dr. Turner, practiced a short time in 
Norwich, and then removed to New York. 

Charles Worthington, in the year 1800, offered his services as a physi- 
cian, advertising that he had been licensed by the Medical Society. 

Lemuel Boswell, for many years the principal practicing physician in 
Chelsea; died Aug. 18, 1804, aged 69. 

Tliomas B. Boswell, died Feb. 3, 1829, aged 49. 

George Tisdale, began practice at Norwich in June, 1799, and died in 
November, 1824, aged 51. 

Nathan Tisdale, died July 15, 1830, aged 58. These were brothers, 
and natives of Lebanon.* 

Rufus Spalding, removed from Nantucket to Norwich- town in 1812; 
died Aug. 22, 1830, aged 70. 

Alfred E. Perkins, son of Major Joseph Perkins, graduated at Yale 
College in 1830 ; acquired the degree of M. D. in 1833, but died Oct. 29, 
1834, before entering on professional duty. He was a young man of high 
attainments and fine promise. In his will he bequeathed to the Library 

* George H., only son of Dr. Nathan Tisdale, emigrated to Alabama in 1837, and 
there died at Selma, Sept. 22, 1865, aged 51. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 637 

of Yale College a fund of $10,000, the interest to be used in tlie purchase 
of books.* 

Chaimcey Burgess, died Aug. 8, 1850, aged 56. 

John P. Fuller, died May 15, 1861, of scarlet fever. Dr. Fuller was 
originally from Providence, but had practiced, before i-emoving to Nor- 
wich, in Salem, Ct. He had a wide-extended popularity, as a skillful 
surgeon and successful practitioner, and was often summoned to neighbor- 
ing towns for operation or advice in critical cases. 

At the present time there are more than twenty surgeons and physi- 
cians, practitioners of the different systems, in the town. Richard P. 
Tracy is the veteran of the list, having been nearly fifty years in practice. 

Worthington Hooker, a native of Springfield, Mass., began to practice 
in Norwich in 1829. He removed to New Haven in 1852, and has since 
been connected with the Medical Department of Yale College. 

William P. Eaton, a native of Plainfield, has been for forty-six years 
a resident in Norwich, — Nov. 19, 1819, being the date of his settlement 
in the place as a medical practitioner. He withdrew from professional 
practice after a few years, and has since been engaged in the drug busi- 
ness ; taking always an active interest in the public improvements, discus- 
sions, and municipal affairs of the city. ^ 

Elijah Dyer, originally from Canterbury, has been for nearly forty years 
a resident of the town, and in constant practice. 

Ralph Farnsworth, a native of Groton, Mass., began his professional 
career in Norwich in 1826. 

Ashbel B. Haile, from Otsego Co., N. Y., about the year 1840. 

These are the only physicians in town whose practice extends over 
twenty years. 



Druggists. 

The following persons, bearing the title of Doctor, were pi-obably drug- 
gists, and not practicing physicians : 

Dr. McClure, of Norwich, 1791. 

Dr. Joseph Coit, who died Dec. 18, 1799. 

Dr. Gurdon Lathrop, son of Azariah, 1800; died 1828. 

Dr. Joseph Thomas, died April 20, 1840, aged 68. 

The most noted druggists of the place, in modern days, whose names 
now belong to the history of the past, are the following : 

* This was the third considerable donation to Yale College from citizens of Norwich. 
Major James Fitch endowed it in its infancy with 637 acres of land in the town of Kil- 
lingly, and Dr. Daniel Lathrop in 1782 left a legacy to the College of £500. 



638 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Dwight Ripley, died Nov. 18, 1835, aged 71.* 

Samuel Tyler, d. Sept., 1854, aged 80 years and 20 days. 

William S. Tyler, d. Sept. 29, 1864, aged 57. 

Charles Lee, d. Oct. 26, 1865, aged 75. 

Dr. Lee, of the firm of Lee & Osgood, entered into the drug business 
at Norwich in 1831. lie was brother to Dr; Samuel Lee of Windham, 
the original propi-ietor of the Windham Lee's Pills, (as distinguished from 
the pills of Dr. S. H. P. Lee of New London,) and succeeded him in 
making and vending this popular specific.f 



The 59th Annual Meeting of the State Medical Society was held at 
Norwich, May 9, 1855, by invitation of the City Medical Association. 
It had never before held its anniversary except at one of the State cap- 
itals. Dr. Jonathan Knight of New Haven was present, who 47 years 
before had been the principal of the Proprietors' School in Norwich. 



Business Sketches and Current Events. 

After the Revolution, the growth of Chelsea in buildings, population, 
and commerce, was rapid, and the tide of prosperity continued without 
any serious check to the close of the century. 

Tliomas Mumford was a thriving merchant, living in handsome style, 
and was extensively known as a gentleman and a patriot. He died in 
1799. 

Joseph Howland was in business at Norwich for nearly forty years. He 
came to the place about the year 1770 ; married Lydia, daughter of Capt. 
William Coit, May 27, 1772, and was made a freeman in 1773. He was 
afterward of the firm of Howland & Coit, Norwich, Howland «& Allyn, 
New London, and at a later period, in connection with his son, Joseph 
Howland, Jr., and Jesse Brown, Jr., established the firm of Howland, 
Brown & Co. This concern owned and fitted out the ship Charlotte, and 

* J. D. Kipley, a grandson of Dr. Dwight Ripley, perished in the burning of the 
steamer Commonwealth at Groton, Ct., Dec. 29, 1865. He was engaged in medical 
studies when the war commenced, and enlisted in the 18th C. V. as Hospital Steward, 
but often during his three years' service performed the duties of Assistant Surgeon, 
particularly at Winchester, where he was left by the enemy in charge of the severely 
wounded. On retiring from the army, he resumed the study of his profession, and had 
been attending medical lectures in New York, practicing also in the wards of the hos- 
pital, and was returning home to spend the holidays, when he met with his untimely 
fate, — being, as it was supposed, suffocated in his berth. 

t Before Dr. Lee removed to Norwich, he had been in business at Willimantic, and 
was largely instrumental in establishing a Congregational church in that village, of 
which church he was the first deacon, and superintendent of its first Sabbath School. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 639 

some fifteen or twenty brigs, schooners and sloops ; often having on hand 
live stock sufficient for three or four deck-loads to the West Indies, and 
inboard freight to a proportionate extent. This partnership was dissolved 
in May, 1806. 

Mr. Howland built the house on Union street, which was afterward for 
forty years the residence of Dr. Dwight Ripley and his family. Having 
relinquished business and settled his affairs in Norwich, he removed to 
New York, where his children, both sons and daughters, had previously 
settled, and died in that city, March 11, 1836, aged 86.* 

Capt. John Howland, the elder brother of Joseph, was originally con- 
nected with him in maritime affairs, and was also a practical ship-master, 
sailing chiefly from New York, and making both West India and Euro- 
pean voyages. He was at Liverpool in 1785, in command of the brig 
ilary, and died at sea in 1789, aged forty. After his death, his son, Na- 
thaniel Howland, born at New York in 1775, came to reside with his rel- 
atives in Norwich, and was introduced by them into the mercantile and 
shipping business. In the course of a few years he had a rope-walk in 
West Chelsea, a duck manufactory at the Falls, and a wharf and store at 
the Landing. He held also the military rank of colonel, but removed 
about the year 1814 to Brooklyn, New York, where he died July 7th, 
1839. 

Gen. Ebenezer Huntington, though a resident in the town-plot, was in 
business at the Landing more than thirty years, occupying a store in She- 
tucket street, nearly opposite the bridge. 

Gen. Jedidiah Huntington, also an up-town resident, transacted business 
in Shetucket street, at the blue store,'\ the former premises of Trumbull, 
Fitch & Trumbull, and was here engaged in merchandise, when the Rev- 
olutionary war commenced. Most of the commissary business of Col. 
Joshua Huntington was executed at this stand. It was afterwards occu- 
pied for the cutlery and hardware business, by Huntington «& Glover, the 
firm changing to Jabez Huntington & Co. 

Thomas Coit was a merchant in Norwich for about fifteen years. He 
was burnt out in 1793, but most of his goods were saved, and he continued 
in trade till 1798, when he sold out and removed to Canterbury. 

Jacob and John De Witt, father and son, together and in succession, were 
in business for more than seventy years. 

* His oldest son, Joseph Howland, Jr., died young and unmarried. His other sons, 
Samuel S. and Gardiner G., went to New York at an early age, and in the course of a 
few years rose to the highest rank as merchants and bankers, founding a large com- 
mercial house from which they retired with overflowing wealth in 1837, leaving the 
business to their sons and nephews. It is now the firm of Howland & Aspinwall. 

t Fanciful colors for mercantile buildings seem to have been at one time in vogue. 
One of the old stores in Chelsea was painted red with yellow trimmings. 



640 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The name of Peter Lanman^ father and son, was conspicuous in mer- 
cantile affairs for nearly the same length of time.* 

The Breeds, father, son, and grandsons, have pursued the same business 
at the same hardware and shipping store in Water street, for more than a 
hundred years. The building has been enlarged, but the main part re- 
mains nearly the same as when built by Gershom Breed in 1764.t 

The Tyler drug-store on Water street was built in 1784, and has been 
occupied by three successive generations of the family. The firm was at 
first, " Tyler & Tyler," the partners being Samuel Tyler of Norwich, and 
Pascal P. Tyler of Brooklyn, Conn. Col. Tyler had served seven yeai'S 
with Dr. Joshua Lathrop, and was familiar with those old recipes which 
the elder Dr. Lathrop had obtained in England, in the efficacy of which 
there was a strong traditionary faith. 

Joseph Williams and Lynde Mc Curdy, active merchants and esteemed 
citizens, were taken from their spheres of usefulness in the pi-ime of life. 
The former died Oct. 23, 1800, at the age of 47 ; the latter in 1803, aged 
48. Mr. McCurdy was a native of Lyme but his mature years were all 
spent in Norwich, where he was distinguished for generosity and public 
spirit. His epitaph says, " Short were the admonitions of sickness, and 
suddenly was the grave his house."J 

In the early part of the present century, Hezekiah Perkins, Andrew 
and Joseph Perkins, Farewell and Benjamin Coit, and Erastus Coit, were 
prominent as citizens and merchants. Woodbridge & Snow was a well- 
known firm. Samuel Rudd, Henry Gordon, Devotion & Storrs, Felix A. 
Huntington & Co., were dealers both in dry goods and groceries. 

The brief partnership of Raymond Sf Dodge (Joshua Raymond and 
David L. Dodge) was broken up by Mr. Raymond's decease in 1806. 

Li 1805, we meet with the firm of Pliny Brewer ^ Co. The partner 
in this instance was Joseph Otis, to whom Norwich is indebted for her 
public library. 

Of citizens now living, a few that have been long in business, or prom- 
inently engaged in public affairs, may with propriety be noticed. 

Giles Buckingham, from Saybrook, removed to Norwich in 1808, and 
for many years was an active dealer in dry goods ; the firm changing in 
1815 to G. Buckingham & Co. The elder partner died Nov. 7, 1831, 

* The second Peter Lanman died at Norwich, Dec. 29, 1854, aged 83. Commodore 
Joseph Lanman of the U. S. Navy is one of his sons. 

t The river formerly ran directly in the rear of these buildings on Water St., where 
the railway connection track is now laid. 

X The residence of Mr. McCurdy, still known by his name, is on the pitch of the hill 
overlooking Main st. It was built in 1786, by Nathaniel Backus for his son Erastus, 
who died in 1791. It was then purchased by Mr. McCurdy. 



HISTORY OF NOR-WICH. 641 

aged 53. The other partner, Hamlin B. Buckingham, is the present libra- 
rian of the Otis Library. 

Relationship to these merchants brought William A. BiicJcingham to 
Norwich in 1825. He was at first in their employ, but soon became a 
successful mex'chant on his own account, and has since been extensively 
engaged in various manufactures. The town has been greatly indebted 
to his exarajile and influence. 

He was chosen Governor of Connecticut in 1858, and has been annually 
re-elected by continually increasing majorities. This position is not the 
result of political management, or party compromise^ but may be consid- 
ered as a popular tribute to his high character for judgment and integrity. 
He is a practical man, connected with the manufacturing and industrial 
interests of the State ; a friend to the poor and unfortunate, and of un- 
wearied industry in doing good. 

Governor Buckingham is a direct descendant, in the sixth generation, 
from Rev, Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook, and his wife, Hester Hos- 
mer of Hartford, who were married in IGGfi. He was born in Lebanon 
May 28, 1804, and has two brothers, Rev. Samuel Buckingham of Sprinfr- 
field, and J. Matson Buckingham of Norwich, 

Advertisements of the foundry of D. N. Bentley, "at the west end of 
the wharf bridge," begin in 1805, when he was 21 years of age. The 
connection of Mr. Bentley with the rise and establishment of the Metho- 
dist Society in Norwich is noticed elsewhere in this history, 

William Williams, a native of Stonington, born March 12, 1788, be- 
came a resident of Norwich in 1809. For several years he w^as the act- 
ive partner in the firm of Goddard & Williams, flour merchants and man- 
ufacturers at the Falls, and has since been engaged in other commercial 
pursuits. Li 1829, though still residing in Norwich, he entered into the 
■whaling business at New London, and founded the house of "Williams & 
Barns, a successful whaling company, still pursuing the same business. 
In this firm his place was afterward supplied by his son, Thomas W. Wil- 
liams, 2d, (born at Norwich in 1815,) who accumulated a handsome prop- 
erty in the business, but died suddenly at New London, Sept. 12, 1855. 

General AVilliams is well known as a warm friend to the reliojous 
benevolent and educational institutions of the country. But M'itJi the 
schools and school-houses of New London County he is particularly famil- 
iar ; visiting them often, dispensing good advice, and scattering tlie printed 
page. Another specialty for which he is noted, is his devotion to the 
interests of the Mohegan church ; having for many years attended its 
services, and aided its ministrations with perseverance and self-denial. 

The Golden Wedding of General and Mrs. H. P. Williams was com- 
memorated March 13, 1862. It is only within a few years that it has 
become customary to celebrate as a festival, the fiftieth anniversary of 
41 



642 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

married life, and this was the first instance of the kind in Norwich. Tliree 
others have occurred since, celebrated in a similar manner, with festive 
and religious ceremonies, by the following parties : 

Rev. Comfort D. Fillmore, of the Methodist Church, and Mrs. Annice 
Fillmore, at the house of R. II. Fillmore on Bean Hill, March 16, 1863. 

Dea. Isaac and Mrs. Mary H. Bromley, Sept. 7, 1864. 

Humphrey Almy and lady, at the residence of their son, William T. 
Almy, Jan. 15, 1866. 

In connection with General and Mrs. Williams, we may here advert to 
one of the sterling men of former days, with whom they were connected 
by filial ties. Capt. Bela Peck was a man of independent and command- 
ing character ; his frame large and powerful, and in his youth remai-kably 
athletic and of indomitable courage. In his physical and mental charac- 
teristics he was the impersonation of those qualities which make a staunch 
and fearless officer, whether civil or military ; and these were exhibited 
in the various duties he performed as captain of the old matross company 
in his younger days, and deputy sheriff for a long course of years. 

He gained a large property by diligence and assiduity, preserved his 
interest in public affairs to extreme old age, lived to be the oldest man in 
the'parish, took his daily drive alone in his chaise till he was past ninety, 
and died at last without any experience of disease, like one falling asleep, 
in the ninety-third year of his age, Dec. 15, 1850. He was one of those 
men whose images remain long in the memory, associated with the scenes 
and events of former days. 

The firm of Dyer ^ Ripley, druggists, first appeared in 1793. Benja- 
min Dyer and Dwight Ripley, both from Windham, were the partners ; 
but the connection was soon" dissolved. Dr. Ripley was in business forty- 
five years. Ripley & Waldo, (Dwight Ripley and Horace Waldo,) deal- 
ers in drugs, dry -goods and groceries, were the first merchants in Norwich 
to advance out of the old time-sanctioned forms of retail, and sell goods 
in larger packages by wholesale. 

This example was followed in 1823 by the fictitious house of Willis Gray 
Sf Co., a name assumed by the partners, Calvin Tyler* and Joseph Backus. 
This firm launched at once into a business of considerable extent, and pur- 
sued it successfully while the partnership lasted, which was just four years 
to a day, closing in February, 1827, at which time Backus & Norton,t 

* Capt. Tyler was a man of good business talent. Besides engaging in trade, he 
started a regular line of packets to New York, running one of them himself. The price 
of a passage in this line was $4 and found. 

t The premises of Willis Gray & Co. are now occupied by the Norton Brothers. 
Mr. H. B. Norton has been a resident in Norwich since 1824, and was but 19 years of 
age when he formed the partnership with Mr. Backus. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 643 

(Joseph Backus and Henry B. Noiion,) entered into partnership and suc- 
ceeded to the business of the former house. 

March 9, 1809, is the date of an advertisement in the Norwich Courier 
of merchandise for sale by George L. Perkins. This denotes tlie first 
entrance into business of the present treasurer of the Norwich & Worces- 
ter Eaih'oad. Col. Perkins, when quite a young man, was one of the 
originators of the Sabbath School enterprise in Norwich. During the 
war of 1812, he held the oiBce of paymaster, with the rank of brigade- 
major in the U. S. Army, and has occupied other positions of trust and 
honor. 

The book-store of TJiomas Rohinson has been one of the standing 
accommodations of Norwich for forty-eight years. Mr. Robinson is a 
native of Ilartwiek, Otsego Co., N. Y., and began business at Norwich 
in 1818. 

Gurdon A. Jones has been a dealer in shoes and leather at the Landing 
for more than forty years. 

Capt. Wm. W. Coit is a native of New London, but an inhabitant of 
Norwich since 1819, contributing in various departments to the business 
and improvement of the city. 

Benjamin Huntington, the present treasurer of the Norwich Savings 
Society, engaged in business on his own account in the Town Plot in 
1824, and in 1825 was chosen Town Clerk. 



Norwich, at the period of which we now treat, — the end of the first 
quarter of the present century, — was in a state of depression and inactiv- 
ity. It had not recovered from the blow given to its commerce by the 
war of 1812. Many failures had taken place; people were involved in 
debt, and everything was beginning to look old and dilapidated. Since 
then all things seem to have become new. The advance of tlie city in 
population and industrial pursuits may receive illustration from tlie follow- 
ing fact. In 1824, the population of the town was about 4000. Of these 
only one person was known to be of Irish birth. This was Edward Mur- 
pliy, at that time the single Exile of Erin within the town limits. The 

(Irisli population alone now amounts to 4000. 

In these last forty years, new and flourishing houses have been estab- 
lished, new branches of business undertaken, new and honorable names 
enrolled among the inhabitants. But on these new themes we can not 
dwell. It is the special province of history to speak of persons and things 
that have passed away. Yet the present glides so rapidly into the past 
that it is difficult to know where to draw the line. 

I 



644 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

Since this work has been in the press, several natives of Norwich, of 
more than ordinary prominence, have been struck from the ranks of the 
living. Among these is a feminine name of wide celebrity, that has been 
repeatedly mentioned in this work, and which now claims from us the 
moui'nful duty of this additional record. 

Lydia Huntley Sigourney, born at Norwich, Sept. 1, 1791; died at 
Hartford, June 10, 1865. 

The writings of this lady, beginning with her first volume of "Moral 
Pieces, in Prose and Verse," published in 1815, have been for fifty years 
quietly diifusing an influence in favor of the true, the good and the beau- 
tiful, in literature, morals and religion. To the young especially they 
have been of incalculable benefit. The large number of Mrs. Sigour- 
ney's works, their high moral tone, and the good they have accomplished, 
have gained for her a name and reputation that will long endure. 



A New London County Agricultural Society was formed in the year 
1818, which continued in operation five or six years, holding its Annual 
Fair alternately at Norwich and New London. Oct. 30, 1822, the fair 
was held at Norwich on the Town Green. A book auction was connected 
with it, and an address by Mr. Mc Curdy of Lyme. This association 
declined, and after a few yeai's became extinct. 

A new County Society was organized April 12, 1854, in the Town Hall 
at Norwich. Rev. William Clift of Stonington was chosen President, and 
Dr. D. F. Gulliver Corresponding and Recording Secretary. The first 
fair was held at Norwich in September, 1855, at which time M. Paulin, 
the aeronaut, enlivened the show with a balloon ascension, remaining an 
hour in the air, and descending at South Kingston, R. I. The next year, 
the same experimenter came down in Griswold, at the end of twenty 
minutes. 

At the third fair, in 1857, the balloon of Messrs. Allen & King rose 
10 000 feet, and after an hour's flight, descended in Canterbury, seventeen 
miles north of the place of departure. 

This society still continues in operation, and holds its annual fair in 
Norwich. 



At the Paris Exhibition, or World's Fair, in 1855, three natives of 
Norwich were present as representatives of three provinces: Daniel C. 
Gilman from Connecticut, Charles H. Rockwell from California, and T. 
Sterry Hunt from Canada. 

T. S. Hunt is a grandson of Consider Sterry, who has resided for many 
years in Canada. In 1856, he was honored at Pai'is with the rank of 
"Chevalier d'Honor," as a recognition of his merits as a scientific chemist. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 645 

Yantic Cemetery. 

This rural burying-place was consecrated July 12, 1844, all denomina- 
tions of Christians in the city uniting in the services. The address was 
delivered by Dr. Bond of the Second Congregational Church, and the 
consecrating prayer made by Mr. Paddock, the Episcopal Rector. Two 
original hymns were sung, composed by Mr. Charles Thurber. 

This cemetery is the property of the city, and has been much enlarged 
since the first purchase. It contains many beautiful and interesting mon- 
uments, and has recently acquired a new and permanent interest by gath- 
ering within its bounds the hallowed remains of many of the victims of 
the late war. Several brave soldiers who fell upon distant battle-fields, 
and others who perished in dreary prisons, have been brought home, 
and now rest in peace beneath these quiet shades. 



The Wauregan Motel. 

This building was erected by an association of gentlemen, with the 
design of providing a public house that should afford ample accommoda- 
tion and be an ornament to the city. On the spot where it stands, and in 
the immediate vicinity, some of the earliest dwelling-houses at the Land- 
ing were built. Several wooden buildings, denizens of the spot for more 
than a century, and their foundations sunk below the level of the side- 
walks, were demolished to make room for the new structui*e, which was 
commenced in April, 1853. 

It is built of brick, five stories high, with exterior trimmings of free- 
stone, and ii'on balconies, and cost $50,000, exclusive of the basement. 

The situation is unfavorable to a noble and impressive appearance. 
Higher ground and more room are necessary to give effect to so large a 
building. It was opened Feb. 20, 1855. 



Family Meetings. 

Sept. 13, 1853, a meeting was held at Norwich, of the descendants of 
Elder William Brewster. It was decided to erect a monument to the 
memory of Jonathan Brewster and his wife at Brewster's Neck, and to 
prepare a memoir of the venerated ancestor of the family. Elder William 
Brewster. The execution of these tasks was committed to Rev. Ashbel 
Steele of Washington, D. C, by whose instrumentality the meeting was 
convened. Both objects have since been accomplished. The monument, 
a shaft of granite ten feet high, was erected at Brewster's Neck in 1855, 
and a memoir, entitled " Chief of the Pilgrims," published by Mr. Steele 
in 1857. 



646 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Sept. 3, 1857, a family gathering of the descendants of Christopher and 
Simon Huntington was held in Norwich Town. From 300 to 500 de- 
scendants from other places assembled to interchange greetings, to trace 
relationship, and rehearse the traditions of their ancestors. Original hymns 
were sung, original poems repeated, speeches made, and an historical ad- 
dress delivered by Rev. E. B. Huntington of Stamford, Ct. 



Banking and Insurance Companies. 

The first banking establishments in Connecticut were the Hartford 
Bank and the Union Bank of New London, both chartered at the May 
session of the Legislature in 1792. 

Norwich applied for a similar privilege at the same time with New 
London, but the Legislature declined to authorize more than one bank for 
the county, and persuaded the applicants from the two towns to unite in 
one institution to be called the Union Bank, — the directors to be chosen 
from both places, but the seat of the bank to be at New London. 

This arrangement was accepted. Gen. Jedidiah Huntington was chosen 
President. The directors were equally divided between the two places, 
and were chosen alternately from New London and Norwich. The first 
from the latter place were — 

Joshua Lathrop, Joseph Williams, 

Daniel L. Coit, Samuel Woodbridge, 

Joseph Howland, Joseph Perkins. 

These were afterward varied, but Joseph Perkins continued to be a 
director till 1830. 

Norwich Ba7ik, incorporated 1796 ; capital, $150,000. In 1864, changed 
to Norwich National Bank, capital $220,000. 

This bank was organized June 21, 1796, at Braman's Tavern on the 
Plain, but for several years afterward the banking-room was the office of 
the president. Gen. Ebenezer Huntington, in Shetucket street. The first 
choice of directors gave the following i-esult : 

Ebenezer Huntington. 

Joshua Lathrop, declined, and Uriah Tracy chosen. 

Daniel Dunham, Elias Brown, Joseph Wilhams. 

David Trumbull, declined, and John Taintor of Colchester chosen. 

Jabez Huntington, Jabez Perkins, Elijah House, 

James Lauman, Luther Payne, Jonathan Devotion. 

The bank has had four presidents and five cashiers. 



>#**■ 




-agiavc-Ll L,-, 






i 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 647 

Presidents: 1, Ebenezer Huntington, 179G. 3, Jabez Huntington, 1823. 

2, Simeon Breed, 1820. 4, Charles Johnson, 1848. 

Cashiers: 1, Hezekiah Perkins, 1796. 3, J. Newton Perkins, 1834. 

2, Francis A. Perkins, 1825. 4, Charles Johnson, 1836. 
5. Frank Johnson, 1848. 
Charles Johnson has been an officer of this bank for thirty years. Jed- 
idlah Huntington has been on the Board of Directors since 1826, — forty 
years. Of the original stockholdei-s, the one that lingered longest upon 
earth was Nathaniel McClellan, formerly of Pomfret, but lately of Nor- 
wich, who died Sept. 28, 1863, aged 86. 

Thames Bank, incorporated 1825: capital $200,000, increased in 1856 
to $500,000, and in July, 1865, to $1,000,000. Organized as Thames 
National Bank, 1864. 

It has had three presidents : 

1, William P. Greene, 1825. 2, Edward Whiting, 1844. 3, Franklin 
Nichols, elected in July, 1851. 

Cashiers: 1, Lyman Brewer, from 1825 to his death in June, 1857. 
2, Charles Bard, elected in June, 1857, and still in office. 

Two of the original stockholders of this bank, Henry M. Wait of Lyme 
and Adam Larrabee, (then of Groton, but now of Windham,) are still 
living.' Mr. Wait was a director of the bank fifteen years.* Mr. Larra- 
bee is still a member of the board, having been recently chosen for the 
forty-first time. 

The rooms of this institution in the new bank building in Shetucket st. 
are considered superior in style and accommodation to those of any other 
banking house in the State. They are adorned with admirable life-like 
portraits of the first President and first Cashier. 

Qidnehaug Bank, incorporated 1832 : capital $500,000. 

First meeting of directors June 11, 1833. The first president, Charles 
W. Rockwell, in office three years, was followed successively by Wm. C. 
Oilman, John A. Rockwell, and F. A. Perkins, in short terms ; Samuel 
C. Morgan, 1843—1860; Lucius W. Carroll, to 1862; David Gallup of 
Plainfield, to 1864. 

In June, 1864, this bank, having purchased the title and privileges of a 
National Bank that had been organized the preceding year under the gen- 
ex*al banking act, dro[)ped the name Quiuebaug, and was reorganized as 
the First National Bank of Norwich. The capital remains the same. 

Lucius W. Carroll, president ; Lewis A. Hyde, cashier. 

Mr. Hyde had been cashier of the Quinebaug since 1832. 

* The Golden Wedding of Hon. Henry M. Wait, LL. D., formerly Chief Judge of 
the Supreme Court of Connecticut, was commcuioratcd at Lyme, Jan. 23, 1866. 



648 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Merchants^ Bank, incorporated 1833 ; capital $200,000. Changed in 
June, 1865, to Merchants' National Bank. 

This bank has had two presidents and three cashiers. 

1st president, William Williams, (25 years,) resigned Sept. 6, 1858 ; 
2d, Henry B. Tracy, now in office. 

1st cashier, Joseph Williams; 2d, Joel W. White; 3d, James M« 
Meech, since 1856. 

Shetuchet Bank, organized under the Free Banking Law of 1852 ; in- 
corporated 1855: capital, $100,000. Changed in 1864, to Shetucket 
National Bank. 

Charles Osgood, president. 

1st cashier, D. O. Strong; 2d, John L. Devotion, since 1855. 

Uncas Bank, organized under the Free Banking Law of 1852 ; incor- 
porated 1855; capital, $300,000. Changed in 1864 to Uncas National 
Bank. 

James A. Hovey, president ; Edward H. Learned, cashier. 

In this bank there has been no change of officers. 

Second National ^a?i^, organized under the General Act in July, 1864. 
Capital, $100,000 ; since increased to $300,000. 

J. Hunt Adams, the first president, resigned in May, 1865, and was 
succeeded by David Smith. Chai'les P. Cogswell, cashier. 

The year 1857 was marked by a great financial crisis in American 
business. Norwich was seriously affected by it. The Pequot Bank, 
which had been incorporated, relinquished its charter. The Quinebaug 
and Uncas Banks, failing to redeem their bills, were thrown out by the 
Suffolk Bank, Boston. They were however taken at par in trade, and 
never lost their value as a medium of circulation. At the beginning of 
the next year, the banks were able to redeem their bills, and regained 
their former credit. 

The bank building in Shetucket street was erected in 1863, at a cost of 
$60,000. It stands on a solid ledge of rocks, with the precipitous river 
bank in its rear. It is built of brick, with a front of Dorchester free- 
stone, and is over fifty feet in height. It consists of three sections, belong- 
ing to the Chelsea Savings Bank, Thames National Bank, and Norwich 
Savings Society. It accommodates also the Quinebaug National Bank 
and the Thames Insurance and Norwich Fire Insurance Companies, 
renting also a number of private offices. 

During the years 1864 and 1865, the seven banks of Norwich were all 
arranged by their directors, under the Genei*al Banking Act of Congress, 
as National Banks. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 649 

Norwich Savings Society. This was incorporated in May, 1824, upon 
the petition of twenty persons, by whom, according to the terms of the 
charter, twenty others were chosen, the whole constituting a Board of 
Trustees. Of these forty trustees, at the close of 1865 only two are on 
the stage of life, viz., George L. Perkins and David N. Bentley. Three 
of the first twenty petitioners died during the year 1865, viz., Joseph Wil- 
liams, John Breed, and Amos H. Hubbard, forty-one years after the char- 
ter grant. 

The deposits during tlie first year (to Oct. 1, 1826,) amounted to 
$20,000; in the first ten yeai-s, to $160,000; and in twelve years, to 
$226,000. 

The first president was Charles Rockwell,* who died in June, 1826, 
and was succeeded by Jabez Huntington. The late Francis A. Perkins 
was connected with this institution for a much longer time than any other 
officer. He was treasurer for the first ten years ; then president four 
years; and in 1848 again elected treasurer and secretary, which ofiices he 
retained till his death in March, 1863. He was succeeded by Benjamin 
Huntington, who is still in ofiice. 

Amount deposited to January, 1866, $4,553,580.40. 

Chelsea Savings Batik, incorporated May, 1858. 

Lorenzo Blackstone, president. 

Charles M. Coit, treasurer ; resigned in 1861, to enter the army. John 
B. "Ward chosen to supply his place ; four years in office. Chas. M. Coit 
re-appointed in July, 1865. 

Amount of deposits to January, 1866, $516,780.37. 

A third savings bank, with the title of Farmers and IMechanics' Savings 
Bank, was organized in 1854, capital $100,000, which was in operation a 
few years, but is now discontinued. 



Insurance Companies. 

Norwich Mutual Assurance. The charter for this company was granted 
on petition of Joshua Lathrop and others. The first meeting was held at 
the old court-house in Norwich Town, Dec. 29, 1794. 

Zachariah Huntington, secretary. 

This company has never had a president. Since 1844, Henry B. Tracy 
has been secretary and treasurer. 

For a long course of years, the capital announced from year to year was 
$6,666. The assets at the present time (close of 1865) are $8,979.95. 

* Father of Charles W. and John A. Rockwell. 



650 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The Norwich Marine Insurance Co. was chartered in 1803 ; capital, 
$50,000. Joseph Howland, president ; Shubael Breed, cashier. 

The Fire hisurance Co. was organized in 1813. Ebenezer Huntington, 
treasurer ; Joseph WilHams, secretary. 

These two companies were consolidated by act of the Legislature in 
October, 1818, and incorporated as the Norwich Fire Insurance Company. 
Capital, $100,000 ; increased to $200,000. 

First president, Charles P. Huntington. Joseph "Williams, secretary 
from 1818 to 1855. 

Officers in 1865: Ebenezer Learned, president; J. L. Denison, secre- 
tary. 

Cash capital, $300,000. Assets, Feb. 1, 1866, $415,571.72. 

New London Co. Mutual Fire Insurance. Chartered in May, 1840 ; 
organized in July. 

Joseph Backus, president ; John DeWitt, secretary. 
Assets, Jan. 1, 1866, $32,869.13. 
Elijah A. Bill, president since 1859. 
John L. Devotion, secretary since 1853. 

TJiames Fire Insurance. Licorporated 1859 ; capital, $200,000. 
Amos W. Prentice, president ; B. B. Whittemore, secretary. 
Assets Jan. 1, 1866, $249,747.97. 



Norwich and Worcester R. R. Co. 

Chartered in 1832, with the title of Boston, Norwich and New London 
E. R. Co. ; capital, $1,000,000. 

In 1836, the corporate name was changed to Norwich and Worcester 
E. E. Co., and the capital has since been increased to $2,825,000. 

Officers since 1836: presidents — 

William C. Oilman, June, 1836 — 1 year. 

Charles W. Eockwell, « 1837—1 

John A. Eockwell, « 1838—3 

Charles W. Eockwell, " 1841—2 

Dan Tyler, " 1843—2 

John C. Holland, " 1845—3 

Joel W. White, " 1848—9 

Augustus Brewster, " 1857 — 1866. 

James T. Eichards, secretary and treasurer two years. 

George L. Pei'kins, treasurer since 1838, — 28 years. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. . G51 

Annual income of tlie road from 1840 to January, 1866:* 

1840, Earnings less than Disbursements. 

1841, Earnings, $151,926.94 1854, Earnings, $322,754.43 



1842, 


(( 


126,761.79 


1855, 


a 


304,236.33 


1843, 


u 


125,020.49 


1856, 


a 


132,745.92 


1844, 


a 


223,465.65 


1857, 


ii 


287,756.58 


1845, 


a 


204,308.45 


1858, 


a 


283,556.27 


1846, 


a 


241,909.55 


1859, 


a 


351,689.68 


1847, 


a 


234,895.59 


1860, 


a 


358,362.34 


1848, 


a 


218,073.30 


1861, 


i( 


288,512.22 


1849, 


u 


236,197.61 


1862, 


a 


353,664.90 


1850, 


a 


261,259.12 


1863, 


i( 


432,559.56 


1851, 


a 


270,049.37 


1864, 


(I 


631,728.19 


1852, 


(C 


267,561.70 


1865, 


(( 


714,059.83 


1853, 


a 


321,046.14 









Steamboat Companies. 

The communication with New York by a line of steamboats has been 
sustained with but little interruption since its first inauguration in 1817. 
The merchants of Norwich and New London were mutually interested in 
the earlier boats, and united in forming the first incorporated companies. 

The Norwich and New London Steamboat Co. was organized in 1848, 
with a capital of S200,000 ; Henry B. Norton, president. This line ran 
their boats in connection with the Norwich and "Worcester Railroad ; the 
terminus being at Allyn's Point. Among the boats employed were the 
Cleopatra, Norwich, Worcester, and Connecticut. The Commonwealth 
was built for them in 1855, and sold in 1860, about which time the com- 
pany discontinued their operations, wound up their affairs, and was dis- 
solved. 

The Norwich and New York Transportation Company was organized 
under the General Act in 1860. Capital, $350,000. Capt. Joseph J. 
Comstock of New York was the first president, succeeded in 1863 by 
David Smith of Norwich. Augustus Brewster treasurer, and P. St. M. 
Andrews secretary, from the beginning. 

This company was formed for the purpose of facilitating the operations 
of the Norwich and "Worcester Railroad Co. by furnishing an advanta- 
geous connection with New York. It was indebted for its origin, organi- 
zation, and subsequent success, chiefly to the president of the railroad, 

* Furnished by G. L. Perkins, Es^., Treasurer of the Road. 



652 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Mr. Brewster, who, as treasurer of the company, has been the general 
agent and efficient manager of the business from that time to March, 186G, 
when he resigned the office. 

This company have four fine steamers built expressly for their line, and 
named after the points of communication to which their business extends. 
The City of Boston made her first trip from New York, July 4, 1861 ; the 
City of New York eighteen days later, July 22. The first trip of the City 
of Norwich was July 19, 1862; of the City of New London, May 22, 
1863. 

Gross jearnings of the company from July 1861, to 

Nov. 30, 1862, 16 months, - - $466,227 

« 30, 1863, one year, - - - 416,243 

« 30, 1864, « - - . 608,374 

« 30, 1865, « . . _ 704,198 

The system of transportation established by this company in connection 
with the railroads, is the most perfect that has ever been arranged upon 
this route through the Sound. By contract with the New London North- 
ern Railroad Co. an interchange of accommodations is effected ; the Rail- 
road Company using the boats of the Transportation Company for con- 
veyance to New York, and the latter making use of the advantages 
afforded by the commodious wharf and depot landing at New London. 

The Norwich and Worcester Railroad, by contract with the New Lon- 
don Northern R. R, Co., now run their express and passenger trains over 
the track of the latter on the west side of the Thames. This arrangement 
went into effect Oct. 1, 1861, and the terminus of the through business of 
the Norwich and Worcester R. R. Co. has since been at New London. 



Every year is adding importance to the navigation of the Thames, not 
only in regard to the interests of Norwich, but as an avenue to the man- 
ufacturing districts beyond Norwich. During a large part of the year, 
when the channel is unencumbered with ice, the river and the wharves 
are lively with business. Sloops and schooners are continually discharg- 
ing freight. Large quantities of iron, coal, cotton, wool, rags, «&;c., are 
required by the manufacturers in and around Norwich, and a still greater 
quantity is conveyed through the place to be distributed on the northern 
routes. The article of coal alone is of great importance, an immense 
amount passing up the river to be transported to Worcester and other 
points in the interior. 

Li 1855, Thomas T. Wetmore, a ship-builder from East Boston, com- 
menced work at Norwich, in the employ of J. M. Pluntington & Co. 
The first vessels were built near Shetucket bridge, and launched nearly 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 653 

under the bridge.* The work was then transferred to a point on the west 
side of the river, near where the Cold Spring Iron Works were situated. 

These iron-works were established by John Perit Huntington, at whose 
invitation Thomas Mitchell, an experienced artificer in iron, — originally 
from Birmingham, England, — came from Wareham, Mass., and took 
charge of the concern. This was in 1845 ; a rolling-mill was built, and 
has ever since continued in operation. The firm is now Mitchell, Broth- 
ers & Co.f 

The rolling-mill and the ship-yard were the beginning of the prosper- 
ous village of Thamesville, which forms the southern extremity of the 
city. 

In 18G3, another i-olling-mill with machinery of a different construction 
was established near the ship-yard. This belongs to a joint-stock company 
called the Thames Iron Works. 

Since the year 1860, eight steam-vessels have been launched from the 
Thamesville ship yard, viz., the Norwich, Trade-wind, Prometheus, Whirl- 
wind, Perit, Chase, and Hunter, — ranging in capacity from 400 to 700 
tons. 

Three of these steamers, the Norwich, Prometheus, and Uncas, were 
sold to the U. S. Government, and were in the public service during the 
war. The Norwich was altered into a gunboat, and commissioned in Jan- 
uary, 18G2. She carried six 32-pounders and 100 men, and was eminently 
useful in the Gulf of Mexico. 

To the same company (J. Monroe Huntington and Theodore Raymond) 
belongs the credit of reviving the direct trade of the port with the West 
Indies. Their first undertaking in this line is noticed in the Norwich 
Courier, April 3, 1859. 

The schooner Ike Marvel, which arrived at this port yesterday morning from Porto 
Rico, with molasses, sugar, and rum, has brought the first cargo of this dcscriptiou 
which lias been landed here direct from the West Indies for over thirty years. 

This trade has since been pursued by the company with spirit and suc- 
cess. The exports consist of lumber, assorted articles, and some live-stock. 
The returns arc chiefly sugar and molasses. The high price of these arti- 
cles has made the business very profitable.! 

* Most of the ship-building at Norwich has been on the west side. Capt. Samuel 
Story, the master builder of former days, who built the whale-ships Connecticut and 
Chelsea, and many other large vessels, died May 3, 18G4, aged 84 years. 

t In this mill an unfortunate accident happened May 9, 1804. By some derangement 
of the machinery, Thomas Mitchell, Jr., was struck by an iron bar in the chest, and 
instantly killed. lie was 42 years of age. 

t On a freight consisting chiefly of molasses and sugar, entered in June, 1865, by the 
brig John R. Plater, belonging to this firm, the duty assessed at the custom-house, New 
London, was $0,688.72, — a sum indicative of a valuable cargo. 



654 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

The schooner Telegraph, Martin L. Rogers captain, was first employed 
in this trade in 1859, sailing May 9th of that year, and was kept after- 
wards constantly upon the line. On the ISlh of June, 18G4, she arrived 
from her twenty-fourth voyage, having nearly averaged five voyages per 
year, and usually bringing from 200 to 220 hhds. per voyage. This is a 
great advance over the old rate of navigation,— when two, or at most, three 
West India voyages consumed the whole year, — and illustrates in a vivid 
manner the progress of skill, science and tact in this department of busi- 
ness. 

This company have recently erected a ware-house at New London for 
the reception and storage of their West India goods. 



Vote of Norwich at the Presidential election, Nov. 4, 1856,-— 
For Fremont, 1,142 ; Buchanan, 810 ; Fillmore, 23 : total, 1,975. 

Votes cast Nov. 8, 1864,— 

For Lincoln, 1,376; for McClellan, 1,101 : total, 2,477. 

This was probably tlie largest vote ever cast in Norwich. 

Vote of Norwich in August, 1864, in reference to the amendment of 
the National Constitution, abolishing slavery, — 
Yeas, 753. Nays, 196. 

Vote in Octobfir, 1865, on the amendment of the State Constitution, so 
as to allow of negro sufii-age, — 

Yeas, 898. Nays, 617. 

Vote for Governor in April, 1863, — 

For Wm. A. Buckingham, 1,235; T. H. Seymour, 936: total, 2,171. 
In April, 1813, just 50 years before, the vote for Governor stood, — 
For John Cotton Smith, 126; Elijah Boardman, 112: total, 270. 

Vote in April, 1865, — 

For Wm. A. Buckingham, 1,284 ; Origen S. Seymour, 462. 



CHAPTER LI. 

NoRAVICH IN CONNECTION WITH THE "WaR FOR THE UnION. 

The fall of Fort Sumter and the call of the President for 75,000 men, 
— events that occurred successively on the 14tliand loth of April, 18G1, — ■ 
have made those days forever memorable in the history of our country. 
From a condition of outward repose, and amid the common routine of 
affairs, the whole nation was suddenly roused to a state of wild excitement. 
The startling fact, that ^oe were at war, ran through the country like the 
rush of a whirlwind. The spirited outbreak of the North in favor of the 
Union was spontaneous and universal. A strong line was immediately 
drawn between loyalty and secession, but all other party distinctions and 
political feuds seemed for the time obliterated. The nation was without 
soldiers, without munitions of war or military equipments, but an army 
leaped into existence, armed, equipped, and ready for action. 

A record of what was done in a single town to support the war for the 
Union, will duplicate the history of hundreds of other towns in New Eng- 
land. But there is a local interest in these side details of the great con- 
flict, which makes it an imperative duty that they should be registered. 
Personal incidents and minor details, that might find no place in general 
histories of the war, have a deep and enduring interest for towns and 
neighborhoods. Honor and grateful regard call- upon us to record the 
deeds of our volunteers, to perpetuate the names of the valiant, and to 
cherish the memory of those among them who fell in the service. A town 
history is incomplete without these memorials. 

The Governor of Connecticut when the war broke out was William A. 
Buckingham, a citizen of Norwich, who was then in the fourth year of his 
administration. He was well known as an earnest patriot and a staunch 
friend both of the Union and the National Government. This undoubt- 
edly quickened the action and added to the energy of the town measures. 
Large and enthusiastic meetings assembled almost spontaneously for the 
purpose of encouraging enlistments and pledging the efforts and resources 
of the community in support of the National Flag. The intense excite- 
ment that prevailed sought relief by demonstrations of loyalty in various 
modes. 



656 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

There was no flag-staff or liberty-pole of any note in or around Nor- 
wich. Suddenly the National Banner was flung to the breeze from every 
conspicuous point in the landscape. It was swung across Main street, 
between Apollo Hall and the Wauregan ; it was displayed from the tower 
of the First Congregational Chui'ch ; it fluttered among the groves of 
Washington street, rose high over Broadway and the Free Academy, and 
graced the rope-walk, the engine halls, the numerous factories, the school- 
houses, and several private residences. It was elevated at Greeneville, 
at the Falls, on the old Court-house, at the Town-plot, and at Yanticville. 
As these threw out their folds, other flags from all the suiTounding villages 
and towns of the old Nine-miles-square, — Bozrahville, Fitchville, Frank- 
lin, Sprague, Hanover, Jewett City, — rose and waved in unison. The 
highest of these standards was that which surmounted the Uncas engine- 
house at the Falls, — 182 feet. 

The Governoi-'s call for volunteers to fill the quota of Connecticut was 
issued April 16 th. In twenty-two days, fifty -four companies were raised 
in the State, offering their services for the three months, but as only three 
regiments were required, many of them were disbanded. 

The First Regiment C. V. was recruited in Hartford. Two young men 
of Norwich, E. K. Abbott and S. T. C. Merwin, hastened thither and en- 
rolled their names as privates in Rifle Co. A. This was the company that 
in just twelve hours from the opening of the roll, reported to the Adjutant- 
General, with a full complement of men and its officers chosen. 

Col. Daniel Tyler, a retired officer of the regular ai-my, residing at 
Norwich, was appointed Colonel of this regiment.* John L. Spalding, 
also of Norwich, was the Sergeant-Major. 

For the other two regiments, three companies were raised in the town, 
that went into service under Captains Frank S. Chester, Henry Peale, 
and Edward Harland. These officers, with their six lieutenants, and 
Lieut. Col. David Young of the 2d C. V., were all of Norwich. Twelve 
commissioned officers and 135 enlisted men are credited to the town for 
the three months service in the State accounts. The enlistments began 
April 18th. 

Capt. Chester's company left the city for the camp at New Haven, 
April 22d, and Capt. Peale's the 24th. These wei'e mustered into the 
2d C. V. as companies A. and B. Capt. Harland's company left for 
Hartford the 29th, and was received into the 3d C. V. 

The whole community was moved when these first companies departed. 
Warfare was a new experience, and the nature of the contest excited 

* Colonel Tyler, now Brigadier-General, is a native of Brooklyn, Ct., and a gradu- 
ate of "West Point. He retired from the U. S. Army in 1832, and had been engaged 
as a civil engineer in superintending the construction of railroads. At a later period 
of the war, he commanded a division of the Army of the Mississippi. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 657 

thrilling emotions. Throngs of citizens, young and old, accompanied them 
to the place of their embarkation, embracing them, and invoking blessings 
on them and their cause. The magnitude of the principles involved in 
the contest seemed to give a deep significance to every measure connected 
with it. 

In aid of these first enlistments, money was poured out like water. A 
large sum was raised by private subscription for bounties and equipments. 
The Thames Bank, following the example of other monied institutions of 
the State, tendered to the Governor a loan of $100,'000 for public use. A 
throng of ladies met for many successive days to prepare articles of cloth- 
ing convenient for the departing soldiers. On Saturday evening, April 
20, a meeting was held at Breed Hall, where eloquent speeches were 
made and patriotic resolutions carried, while at the same time the galleries 
and adjoining offices were occupied by women busily employed in making 
garments for the volunteers. Nor did this work cease upon the Sabbath. 
Labor and prayer went together through tlie day. 

The following cotemporaneous notice gives a vivid idea of the scene, 
and shows the starting-point of a series of efforts for the health and com- 
fort of the soldier in field, camp, and hospital, which, under feminine 
agency, with the title of the Soldier's Aid Society, knew no intermission 
from that time to the close of the war. 

A Revoldtiosart Sabbath. — The 21st day of April was such a Sunday as the 
good town of Norwich never before saw. The beating of drums, the marching and 
drilling of military companies, the display of flags, and fluttering of bunting, the pres- 
ence of unusual crowds in all the streets, the hum of labor where the uniforms of vol- 
unteers were being made, the earnestness and enthusiasm that seemed to animate the 
multitude, and the eagerness of the people to luarn the latest intelligence by telegraph, 
all combined to make such a Sabbath as will long be remembered. 

All day long the Buckingham Rifles, Capt. Frank S. Chester, were engaged in drill 
and exercise, preparing themselves for the active duties of the service in which they 
have enlisted. 

About 350 ladies occupied Breed Hall and the offices below, engaged in making np 
the uniforms for the company. 

At the several churdies in the city, sermons appropriate to the times were preached. 
All the conversation was upon war topics. It was a Sunday such as we may have read . 
of in our Revolutionary history, but have never before seen. [Bulletin.] 

The three regiments left the Slate on the 10th, 14th and 22d of May. 
They were at first detained near Washington, and united in one command 
under Col. Tyler. They were afterward stationed along the outposts in 
Virginia, where they were engaged in guard duty, enlivened with scout- 
ing and skirmishing. In July they were ordered to Centerville, and from 
thence sent forward to meet the enemy, with whom they had their firo. 
encounter in a sharp skirmish at Blackburn's Ford. Three days after- 
ward, July 21st, they took part in the battle at Bull Run. 
42 



658 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

In tills disastrous fight the casualties of the three regiments were six 
men killed and sixty wounded and missing. Of the Norwich volunteers, 
only one was killed, — David C. Case, who was struck by a cannon-ball, 
and died on the field. Corporal John B. Jennings, Charles A. Murray 
and David Rosenblatt, enlisted men from Norwich, were taken prisoners. 

Austin G. Monroe, a sergeant in Capt. Chester's company, had been 
previously captured. He was taken while out on a scouting excursion, 
with one companion, near Falls Church, Va., June 19th, and it was not 
known whether he was killed or captured till the next October, when his 
friends received a letter from him, dated in July from a Richmond prison. 
He endured a year's captivity before he was released. 

The three regiments completed their term of service and were dis- 
charged in August. Two of the enlisted men from Norwich had died in 
hospital of disease. The prisoners, Jennings, Monroe, and Murray, were 
exchanged and came home the next June.* Col. Tyler was commissioned 
as a Brigadier- General in March, 18G2. 

Fresh calls for volunteers were issued by the President, even before 
the return of the three months men, — May 4th for 300,000, and July 10th 
for 500,000. The reci-uiting service was kept lively, and the enlistments 
as yet were freely tendered. The civil and military authorities, public 
opinion and the spontaneous zeal of individuals, co-operated in favor of 
the measures of government. 

In town meeting, Oct. 7, 1861, the following resolutions passed, almost 
by acclamation : 

Resolved, That we extend our hearty thanks to our brave soldiers who have without 
distinction of party rallied to the defence of our glorious Union, and to the support of 
the Government in suppressing this causeless and most unnatural rebellion ; 

That we are proud of the noble position our State has assumed in common with the 
other loyal States, and we hereby pledge to the Government our aid and support, with 
every energy God has given us, until our flag shall float over every fort belonging to 
the Union, and over every State from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico ; 

That we are engaged in a contest as real and vital as the war of the Revolution, &e. 

Resolved, That the Town Clerk be requested to procure a record-book, and make as 
perfect a Roster as practicable of the companies of Captains Chester, Peale, Harland, 
Dennis, Ward, Maguire, Sawyer, Daniels, and such other companies from Norwich as 
have been or shall be hereafter mustered into the service of the Government to aid in 
suppressing this rebellion, &e. 

In 1862, additional calls for troops were made by the Government, — 
July 2d, 300,000 to serve for three years or the war ; and Aug. 4th, 300,- 
000 for nine months. The quota of the town must be forthwith raised, 

* Monroe and Murray, in a month after their return, re-enlisted and went into Capt. 
Peale's company, 18th C. V., and were again taken prisoners at Winchester in June, 
1863. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 659 

and to, aid the progress of enlistment a grand rally was made in favor of 
the flag, the Union, the Government, and the vigorous prosecution of the 
war. The public meetings held at Breed Hal^ond the mass meetings in 
Franklin Square were remarkable for the resolute earnestness that pre- 
vailed. 

Many of the volunteers at this period seem to have entered their names 
on the roll in a spirit of spontaneous self-dedication, and others with an 
earnest sobriety indicative of deep-seated principle. It was creditable to 
human nature to iind such fervent love of country and attachment to the 
Union pervading all classes of society. Clerks came from the stores^ 
laborers from the farms, and operatives from the mills and workshops, 
with the same hearty alacrity. 

The course of business, as well as of thought and conversation, was 
turned into the channel of war. The armories and machine-shops of the 
town developed an astonishing activity and adaptedness to the production 
of hostile weapons. The sail-makers in their lofts were engaged in mak- 
ing tents. Many skillful hands assisted by nice machinery were kept at 
work upon uniforms and other mihtary equipments.* 

The highest point of enthusiasm was reached at a town meeting held 
on the 30th of August to consider the best means of raising the town's 
quota of 300,000 men for nine months. This was one of the most excit- 
ing and enthusiastic meetings ever convened in Norwich. The tenders 
made by individuals were on a noble scale of liberality. One after an- 
other, in a spirit of emulous zeal, such offers as these were made, — 

One hundred dollars to the first ten that enlist. 

The same to the second ten. 

Ten dollars to the first sixty. 

The same to the next twenty. 

One thousand dollars to the families of those that enlist. 

Five hundred to the same. 

One hundred to the same. 

Another hundred to the same, &c., &c. 

Some twenty or thirty offers of this kind were thus spontaneously made,, 
either at the moment, or added afterward by individuals not present at 
the meeting, raising a sum considerably above $20,000. 

In the public assemblies convened at this interesting period, it was not 
uncommon for individuals, moved by tlie stirring appeals of the speakers, 
or prompted by their own determined purpose, to come forth from the- 
audience, and with deep emotion offer themselves to their country. It was 

* James M. Nelson of Norwich contracted in 1862 to make 1000 military coats per 
month from January to June. He kept 200 hands and two dozen sewing-machines at 
work. Daniel Delanoy contracted to make a large number of tents for the Connecticutr 
regiments. 



660 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

thus that Captains Peale, Selden, Stanton, Iluntoon and others volunteered 
their services. Several of the early companies seemed to be raised with 
the swell of a flood, sweeping them into the ranks. 

Through the whole cdiitest there was no departure in the action of the 
town from the spirit of these early measures. But as the war went for- 
ward, demanding its hundreds of thousands of recruits, it became more 
and more difficult in Norwich, as in other towns, to raise the prescribed 
number. Volunteer enlistments were no longer to be expected. The 
material was exhausted ; there was no surplus on hand. Even in the 
peaceful pursuits of trade and agriculture, the incessant demands of the 
army led to a deficiency of laborers. 

But the draft or conscription authorized conditionally by the Govern- 
ment was not enforced in Norwich. A few individuals procured substi- 
tutes, but in general the quotas of the town, to answer the repeated calls 
of 18G3-4, were raised by the selectmen or by war committees, who by 
large bounties and strenuous exertions procured the requisite number. 

The State in 1863 made the liberal oSer of $300 to every person, white 
or colored, that should enlist before January, 1864. The town about the 
same time increased their bounty to $150. This being found insufficient, 
by a vote of Dec. 1, 1864, the whole business was entrusted to a war 
committee, who were to pay drafted persons, substitutes and volunteers on 
the quota of the town, such sums as should be considered necessary and 
expedient. This committee paid in some instances a very high bounty. 
The glow of enthusiasm had faded away. The war was a settled affair, 
and recruits Avere to be raised, as other business was transacted, upon 
pecuniary principles. 

Most of these later recruits differed, widely in character from the early 
enlisted men. Those were patriots, and these were hirelings. Very few 
of the latter were town residents. They were procured by agents from 
other places, and many of them after securing the bounty took the first 
opportunity to desert. Others among them made good soldiers. But 
these later enlistments represented the town, only as paid for by its funds 
and credited to its account in the State calendar. 



A brief sketch of the forces raised in Connecticut for the prosecution of 
the war, will give opportunity to point out how far Norwich participated 
in the great contest. Each town in this respect has a history of its own. 
The object in this outline will be to trace the officers and enlisted men 
from this one community only, in order to show in what lines of service 
they were engaged as members of the State regiments. 

The volunteers from the State, enlisting in 1861 and 1862, to serve for 
three years or during the war, were arranged in seventeen regiments, 
numbered from 4 to 21 inclusive. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 6G1 

It was estimated that nearly two-thirds of the three months men re- 
enlistcd in the service. Many who had served as privates became officers 
in the new levies, the experience they had gained being of great advant- 
age in drilling the fresh recruits and preparing them for duty. 

The 4th C. V. was mustered at Hartford in June, 1861. The Major, 
Henry Birge, and Assistant Surgeon, Edwin Bentley, with eighteen or 
twenty members of different companies, were from Norwich. It was sent 
to Harrisburg, and associated with Gen. Patterson's troops. In Novem- 
ber, it was stationed at Fort Richardson, near Washington. In January, 
1862, this regiment was changed from infantry to artillery, and re-organ- 
ized as 1st Conn. Heavy Artillery, under the management of Major Birge, 
who was appointed Colonel of the Artillery, but soon afterward transferred 
to the 13th Regiment of Infantry. 

The 5th C. V. was the regiment wliich Col. Colt proposed to adopt and 
equip. A very fine Irish company was raised in Norwich, with the ex- 
pectation of joining this regiment, called the Jackson Guards. They were 
thoroughly drilled by Col. Thomas C. Kingsley of Franklin, and chose for 
their Captain, Thomas Maguire. When Col. Colt threw up his interest 
in the regiment, the Jackson Guards, 88 in number, disbanded, but were 
afterward re-organized and accepted into the 1st New York Regiment of 
Artillery. Capt. Maguire was subsequently a Major in the New York 
service. William A. Berry, of this company, was promoted Captain, and 
after participating in many severe battles, and serving from his first enlist- 
ment in the three months campaign, full three years, was killed during 
the siege of Petersburg. He was succeeded by Capt. Thomas Scott, also 
of the Norwich company. 

In the 5th C. V., afterward under the command of Col. Warren W. 
Packer of Mystic, Norwich had no officers, and only a few enlisted men, 
less than twenty in aU. This regiment was mustered in July, 18G1, and 
was sent to Virginia, where they had many sharp conflicts with the enemy. 
Stonewall Jackson inquired of a prisoner how many 5th Connecticuts there 
were, since he heard of them on all sides. At the battle of Cedar Mount- 
ain, they lost 173, killed, wounded, and missing. Nine brave men fell in 
defending their colors ; among whom was Sergeant Alexander S. Avery, 
of Norwich, who died upon the battle-field, Aug. 9, 1862. 

In September, 1863, the 5th C. V. was transferred from the Army of 
the Potomac to that of the Cumberland. It was with Sherman in his 
long southern march. At the hard-fbuglit battle of Resaca, Ga., INIay 15, 
1864, out of ten men belonging to Norwich, who had re-enlisted as vet- 
erans, four were reported among the wounded.* 

Of the 6th C. V. William G. Ely of Norwich was appointed Lieut. 
Colonel, but was soon transferred by promotion to the 18th. The Quar- 

• John G. Blake, Thomas W. Baird, Delano Carpenter, and Stephen Corcoran. 



662 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

master, J. V. B. Williams, and twelve enlisted Germans, were from Nor- 
wich. This regiment obtained honorable notice for its conspicuous gal- 
lantry in the fierce assaults upon the Morris Island batteries and Fort 
Wagner, near Charleston. In one of these attacks, its commander, Col. 
Chatfield, received his death wound. 

Alfred P. Rockwell, of Norwich, was appointed Colonel in June, 1864. 
He had previously served two years as Captain of the 1st Light Battery, 
C. v., and had been stationed on James Island and other parts of the 
Carolinian coast, co-operating in the siege of Charleston. 

The 7th C. V. received the first regular company of three years men 
that was recruited in Norwich. The Captain, John B. Dennis, and the 
Lieutenants, Theodore Burdick and Gorham Dennis, were town residents. 
Of the enlisted men, twenty-three were from Norwich, the remainder of 
the company from neighboring towns. Lieut. Burdick, subsequently pro- 
moted to the command of a company, was killed at Fort Wagner, July 
11, 1863. 

The 7th C. V. was the first Union regiment that landed on the soil of 
South Carolina. They were in Wright's Brigade under Sherman, in the 
expedition against Beaufort, and after the bombardment and ruin of Fort 
Walker, when the troops disembarked, the 7 th Connecticut took the lead, 
landing in twenty-seven boats upon the beach below Hilton Head. 

This regiment afterward performed a vast amount of exhausting work 
at Tybee Island, preparatory to the reduction of Fort Pulaski. These 
labors were continued for four months without intermission. During the 
bombardment, the 7th Connecticut managed five out of the eleven batteries 
that fired upon the fort, and the flag of the captured fortress was sent to 
the Governor of Connecticut, as a token of the distinguished part the reg- 
iment had taken in its reduction.* 

Capt. Dennis of Norwich commanded one of the batteries. His brother, 
2d Lieut. Gorham Dennis, was obliged to resign and return home, the 
drifting sands and bright sunshine of the place affecting his eyes, and 
threatening him with entire loss of sight-f 

This regiment in February, 1864, participated in the hazardous and 
exhausting march upon Olustee, Fla., and was afterward engaged upon 
the James River and in the trenches before Petersburg. On tlie first of 
June, while guarding the picket line, the regiment was attacked with great 
fury, several companies flanked, and 83 prisoners taken by the enemy. 
Capt. Dennis and 20 of his company were of the number. 

While Capt. Dennis was detained a prisoner, he was one of the Union 
soldiers sent to Charleston and placed within the range of the U. S. cannon 

* Conn. War Record, p. 32. 

t Four brothers Dennis, sons of Jared Dennis of Norwich Falls, were in the army 
during the war. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 663 

in retaliation for the bombardment of the city, which was then in progress 
under Gen. Gillmore. In a letter published soon after his escape, he 
says: 

" On the 16th of August last, [1864,] I was one of 600 U. S. prisoners of war that 
arrived in the cit}' of Charleston to be phiced under lire of the U. S. batteries on Moon's 
Island ; 600 having arrived a few days before, and 600 a few days after, making in all 
1800, all confined within one square, viz., Work-house, Marine Hospital, Jail, and 
Roper Hospital. Our condition was one of extreme wretchedness, very few having 
any money, and fewer still clothes to cover them." 

Capt. Dennis was afterward transferred to other places of confinement, 
and during his captivity was a tenant of six different prisons. The last 
was Richland Jail in Columbus, S. C, from which he attempted to escape 
with two other officers early in November, 1864. They obtained a small 
boat, and passing down the Congaree, concealed themselves by day, and 
pursued their course by night. But the second night, while enveloped in 
a thick fog, the boat struck a snag, and upset in deep, rapid water. After 
nearly perishing in the struggle for life, they succeeded in reaching the 
shore, but were discovered, recaptured, and sent back to Columbus. 

On the 24th of December, Capt. Dennis, with thirteen companions, 
made another attempt, which proved successful They obtained a flat-boat 
through the aid of friendly negroes, and in their passage down the river 
were guided and fed by others of the colored race, till at length they 
reached the ocean, where fortunately a gunboat was lying off shore, to 
which they made signals, and were taken on board.* 

In the 8th C. V. Norwich had a large interest. Edward Ilarland, one 
of the Captains of the three months service, was its Colonel ; Cliarles M. 
Coit, Adjutant; DeWitt C. Lathrop, Assistant Surgeon; and John E. 
Ward, Captain of Co. D, with James R. Moore and Charles A. Breed, 
Lieutenants. Nearly half of the enlisted men in Capt. Ward's company 
belonged in Norwich. 

This regiment was in Burnside's expedition to North Carolina. Col. 
Harland was soon placed in command of a brigade, and Capt. AVard by 
rapid promotion became Colonel of the regiment. Two of the Norwich 
officers, after a few months of efficient service, were numbered with the 
dead. Dr. DeWitt C. Lathrop died at Newborn in April, 1862, of illness 
caused by over-exertion in the duties of his office. Lieut. Breed, while 
engaged in important service on the Signal Corps, took the fever of the 
country, and expired in July. These men, languishing and perishing 
from disease, died for their country as truly as others on the battle-field. 

This regiment was in the battle's front at South Mountain and at An- 
tietam. In the last-named terrible fight they suffered severely. "We 



* Speech of Hon. L. F. S. Foster in the U. S. Senate, Jan. 25, 1865, published la 
the Daily Globe at Washington. 



664 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

faced the foe until half the regiment were shot down, and retired only 
when we were ordered."* 

In this battle the regiment was led by Capt. J. E. Ward, Col. Harland 
having charge of a brigade. It went into action about 400 strong, and 
lost 194, killed, wounded, and missing. 

Among the slain was Lieut. Marvin Wait of Norwich. His comrades 
afterward spoke with admiration of the "steadfast and courageous de- 
meanor" which this young man, scarcely above the age of boyhood, dis- 
played in the field of battle. When a ball from a rebel battery struck in 
the midst of his company, killing three, wounding others, covering the 
lieutenant himself with blood and earth, and creating some confusion in 
the ranks, he rushed to the front, closed up their lines, and cheered them 
on to the assault. He stood firm amid a shower of bullets, and when 
wounded in the arm, refused to retire, nor left his post until he had 
received three shots and was fainting with the loss of blood. He was 
then aided to a place considered safe, but received the last fatal shot while 
lying helpless on the ground. 

He was the first commissioned officer from Norwich, that fell in the 
war for the Union. His remains were tenderly conveyed to his parents, 
and laid in the quiet cemetery upon the Yantic, where the marble dedi- 
cated to his memory is inscribed with names that keep fresh the remem- 
brance of his valor : Roanohe Island, Fort Macon, South Mountain, An- 
tietam.'f 

In the campaign of 1863, the 8th Conn, was in Eastern Virginia. On 
the 19th of April, while stationed at Suffolk, Col. Ward, acting under 
orders from Gen. Getty, with 130 men from his own regiment, and 150 
of the 89th N, Y. Vols, under Lieut. Col. England, went up the Nanse- 
mond and made a brilliant charge upon the Hill's Point battery, an annoy- 
ing post held by the enemy upon the river bank. The first man to leap 
from the gunboat to the shore and press forward to the attack was Capt. 
McCall of the 8th C. V.J The post was taken by storm ; the New York 
and the Connecticut soldiers planted their flags side by side upon the ram- 
parts ; the garrison was captured, and the cannon turned against their 
former owners in the shortest possible time. The official report says : 

" We were landed at Hill's Point, in the rear of Fort Hugcr, a little before sunset, 

* Conn. War Eecord, p. 11. 

t Forrest SpofFord, another of Capt. Ward's company, enlisting at the age of eighteen, 
lost his left arm in consequence of wounds received at Antietam, l)ut he remained in 
the service, and at Walthall Junction, in May, 1864, was slightly wounded in his right 
arm. He was earnestly desirous of re-enlisting as a veteran, but being rejected by the 
examining surgeon, served out his three years and was honorably discharged. 

t Conn. War Record, p. 12. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 665 

immediately charged upon the works, and after a very short straggle, captured the fort, 
with five pieces of artillery, a large quantity of ammunition, and about 130 prisoners, 
including seven officers." 

This gallant exploit was alike honorable to Col. Ward and the brave 
men of his command. 

In the advance upon the enemy made by a part of Gen. Butler's army, 
May 7, 18G4, the 8th Conn, led the van, as a skirmishing force. A severe 
engagement took place, near the Walthall junction of the Richmond and 
Petersburg R. R., in which the regiment was exposed to a raking fire from 
artillery in the open field, and was at last compelled to retreat with a list 
of casualties amounting to 72. 

In this action Col. Ward was severely bruised with a shell, Capt. James 
R. Moore badly wounded, and Lieut. Alfred M. Goddard struck down by 
a fatal bullet while advancing in the battle's front and cheering on his 
men. 

Lieut. Goddard was a young man of noble character. The purest patri- 
otism, a deep conviction that he owed this service to his country, led him 
into the field. He had been absent for some time from his regiment, en- 
gaged on staff duty with Gen. Harland, but hastened to rejoin his com- 
mand when it was called into action, and fell in his first fight. He was 
conveyed to Fortress Monroe, and there died two days afterward. 

On the 16th of May, in a battle fought in the midst of an Egyptian fog, 
at Drury's Bluff, near Fort Darling, where the Union forces were again 
repulsed, the gallant Capt. John McCall of Norwich was shot through the 
heart, and died instantly. This young officer possessed all the prominent 
characteristics of a good soldier ; he was cool, steady, prompt, and skillfuh 
He had enlisted as a private, and obtained promotion by acknowledged 
merit. 

Lieut. Goddard and Capt. McCall were interred at Norwich, with an 
interval of one week between the funeral services. The city authorities? 
the military, and the public generally, vied with personal friends in honor- 
ing the remains of these heroic young men. They were of equal age, 
went from the same place, and were slain within ten days of each other, 
in the sanguinary conflicts upon the James river, martyrs to the same 
nobility of principle, — love for liberty and the Union. 

In this campaign, tlie 8th Conn., forming a part of the Army of Vir- 
ginia, could find of course no season of repose.* It was a crisis requiring 
incessant watchfulness and action. The actors described it as a daily bat- 
tle continuing for months, — a constant round of marching, fighting, sieging, 
doing picket duty, digging trenches and lying in them, unless startled by 

* " Tlie 8th Connecticut, one of the most heroic bands of men that ever marched 
beneath a battle-flag." Abbott's Ilistory of the War, 2 : 175. 



QQQ HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

mines, or called away by sudden attacks to more arduous service.* The 
regiment was reduced to little more than half its original strength. Col. 
Ward was placed in command of a brigade, and Capt. Charles M. Coit of 
Co. B. commanded the regiment through the sanguinary conflicts at Cold 
Harbor, the successful charge before Petersburg, and the months of heavy 
siege work that followed, but in an engagement at Fair Oaks, Oct. 28th, 
while acting as Assistant Adjutant-General, he was severely wounded in 
the chest, and recovering but slowly, retired from the service in May, 
1865. 

The 9th C. V. was principally an Irish regiment. A company was 
recruited for it in Norwich, called the Sarsfield Guards. Silas W. Saw- 
yer was Captain, and between 20 and 30 of the enlisted men were resi- 
dents in the town. The regiment was mustered into service at Lowell, 
Mass., in November, 1861. The Sarsfield Guards were at first somewhat 
wild and unruly, and the petty trespasses of the company near Lowell 
made the warning cry of " Connecticut over the fence ! " a temporary 
watch-word ; but when well dz'illed they made excellent soldiers. 

This regiment was sent to New Orleans, and performed its three years 
of arduous duty in the regions bordering upon the Mississippi. It came 
home on veteran furlough in April, 1864, and was then sent into Vir- 
ginia. Capt. Addis E. Payne and Lieut. J. H. Lawler were from Nor- 
wich.! 

In the 10th regiment, as it went first into the army, Norwich had no 
representatives. George C. Ripley was afterward appointed Lieutenant, 
but detached to act upon the staff of Gen. Ferry. 

The 11th C. V. was mustered into service under Col. Thomas H. C. 
Kingsbury of Franklin, and was afterward commanded by Col. H. W. 
Kingsbury, who was killed at Antietam. A fine company called the 
Harland Rifles, recruited in Norwich and gathering 23 of the enlisted 
men from the town, went into this regiment, under Captain Daniels of 
Franklin. 

The 8th, 10th and 11th regiments were in Burnside's expedition against 
North Carolina. Col. Kingsbury and 500 of his men were on board the 
Voltigeur when she stranded on Cape Hatteras, and lay there twenty-three 
days before they could get ashore. 

In the renowned battle of Antietam, so destructive to human life, no 
single regiment was visited with such fearful slaughter as the 11th Con- 

* Report of Major Pratt. 

t In October, 1865, Lieut. Lawler, late of the 9th C. V., went to Ireland on a visit 
to his kindred. On arriving in Dublin, he was arrested by the British authorities on 
suspicion of being a secret agent of the Fenians. His revolver, army medals, &c., were 
taken as proofs of his hostile intentions. He was soon, however, released and his pis- 
tols and documents restored. [Norwich Aurora. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. ^ 667 

necticut. Besides losing its Colonel, it was nearly halved. Before tlie 
conflict its strength was 440 ; 97 were killed, and 102 wounded.* 

In less than two years this regiment was again deprived of its com- 
mander by the pitiless stroke of war. Col. Griffin A. Stedman, of Hart- 
ford, a brave and accomplished oflacer, was killed before Petersburg, Aug. 
5, 1864. 

The commissioned officers from Norwich in the 11th C. V. were Capt. 
Joseph H. Nickerson, and Lieuts. G. W. Keables and James E. Fuller. 

In the 12th C. V. Norwich had but a few enlisted men, and only one 
commissioned officer that remained in the regiment, viz., Lieut. Dwight 
McCall of Yantic; but in the loth C. V. the town was largely repre- 
sented. Henry W. Birge, Colonel ; J. B. Bromley, Quartermaster ; N. 
A. Fisher, Assistant Surgeon ; G. ^Y. Whittlesey, Adjutant ; Captains 
Alfred Mitchell and James McCord ; Lieuts. J. C. Abbott, W. P. Miner, 
and R. A. Ripley, with nearly half a hundred enlisted men, were from 
Norwich. 

These two regiments, 12th and 13th, were sent to New Orleans, and 
employed in the departments of the Gulf and the Mississippi. 

The 13th was quartered at first in the custom-house, and was like a 
right hand to General Butler in preserving order and sustaining the honor 
of the Union flag. This regiment was remarkable not only for its fine 
appearance, neat equipments, and soldier-like regard to manners and eti- 
quette, but for prompt obedience of orders and faithful performance of 
duty. 

These regiments in their southern campaigns had a trying expei-ience 
of battles, sieges, skirmishes, fevers, and long marches. At Georgia 
Landing their first blood was shed. They were in sharp fights at Thibo- 
deaux, Labadierville, Camp Bissell, Irish Bend,t and Port Hudson. 

At Port Hudson, after the Union forces had been twice repulsed, Gen. 
Banks called upon the army for a storming party of 1,000 volunteers, to 
take the post or perish in the attempt. Col. Birge was the first officer to 
respond. He collected a roll of 1,02G volunteers,— 91 officers and 935 
enlisted men, — and offered himself with them to the commanding General 
to make the attempt. Of this party, 242 were from the regiment of Col. 
Birge, (13th C. V.) and 45 from the 12th C. V. The others were gath- 
ered out of the forty or fifty regiments at that time composing the Union 
Army of the Mississippi. While this heroic band were preparing for 

* Four of the Norwich men in the comjiany of dipt. Daniels were slain : David M. 
Ford, J. C. IIolvvcll, H. M. Scholfield, and John W. Wood. 

t Capt. McCord of Norwich was higlily commended for bravery at Irish Bend. "While 
the 13th was encamped at Thibodeaux, Lieut. Andrew T. Johnson of Montville and 
Lieut. Wheeler of New Haven were killed by the explosion of a car loaded with am- 
munition. 



668 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

their hazardous task, the post was unexpectedly surrendered, and the 
service was not required. This, however, does not detract from the patri- 
otism and self-sacrifice implied in the offer, which history will record as a 
special instance of heroism and devotion to the Union cause. When the 
formal surrender of the fort took place, the storming party, led by Col. 
Birge and bearing the flag of the loth C. V., were the first that entered 
the works, and the garrison grounded their arms before them. 

In the 14th C. V. Norwich had several efficient officers and nearly 40 
enlisted men. William H. Tubbs and James B. Coit were Captains ; 
Henry P. Goddard and James R. Nickels promoted to the same rank ; 
Morton F. Hale and Frederick Schalk, Lieutenants. 

This regiment has a martial record that places it high in the ranks of 
heroism. In the first four battles inscribed upon its banners, it was suc- 
cessively divided into nearly equal shares between those that suffered and 
those that escaped injury. The loss at Antietam was 156;* at Freder- 
icksburg, 120 out of 320 that went into battle; at Chancellorville, 70 out 
of 220; at Gettysburg, 66 out of 160. Notwithstanding its reduced 
ranks, this regiment at Gettysburg, in the final terrific charge, when the 
grand attack of Lee was repulsed, took five regimental battle-flags and 
over forty prisoners.! 

In the Virginia campaign of 1864, this regiment again met with severe 
losses, — taking part in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold 
Harbor, Petersburg, and others. Capt. Coit, promoted Major in October, 
1863, was wounded in five different battles. Lieut. Schalk died of wounds 
received in the Wilderness. Capt. Nickels, severely wounded in the bat- 
tle at Ream's Station, languished and died in a hospital at Washington, — 
one of the purest, bravest spirits that the war numbered among its vic- 
tims. 

In the next three regiments Norwich had no local interest, but the 18th 
was regarded as peculiarly her own, or the home regiment. It was the first 
that was here mustered into service. The Fair Ground near the city was 
prepared for the camp, and a hickory flag-staff eighty feet high raised as 
the signal-post. The regiment consisted of five companies from Windham 
county, and five from New London county. The latter were all recruited 
in Norwich, and the costly banners of the regiment, National and State, 
were a gift from the ladies of the place. 

Of the commissioned officers, eighteen were from Norwich, viz., Wm. 
G. Ely, Colonel ; D. W. Hakes, Quartermaster ; C. M. Caileton, Sur- 
geon ; J. P. Rockwell, Sergeant-Major ; five Captains, — Davis, Bromley, 
Hakes, Peale, Knapp ; and nine Lieutenants, — 1st, Lindsay, Morrison, 
Merwin, Palmer, — 2d, Cowles, Francis, Higgins, Lilly, and Tiffany. Of 

* Report of Col. Morris. 

t Beport of Col. Ellis. . 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 669 

the enlisted men, 240 are credited to Norwich on the rolls of the Adjutant- 
General. 

Tlie regiment left Norwich Aug. 22, 1862. As they marched through 
the streets to the place of embarkation, flowers and evergreens were 
showered upon them, prayers and blessings followed them in the way. 

They were stationed for several months in and near Baltimore ; not 
indeed idle, but winning no laurels, and chafing somewhat at their inglo- 
rious ease. Capt. Peale was appointed Major of the regiment ; Capt. 
Bromley detailed to act as Provost-marshal ; Capts. Hakes and Knapp 
resigned, and were succeeded by their Lieutenants, F. A. Palmer and J. 
H. Morrison. Dr. Carleton relinquished the post of Surgeon on account 
of ill health. 

At the opening of the campaign of 1863, the 18th was placed at once 
in the front of danger, being assigned to Milroy's command, in Virginia, 
and stationed at or near Winchester, which was then an outpost against 
the inroads of the enemy. 

The three days of June, 1863, (13th, 14th, and loth,) were a severe 
ordeal to this regiment. The Confederate forces under Generals Ewell, 
Early, and Jackson, advanced against "Winchester, drove the Union de- 
tachments back upon the town, made attacks in different directions, and 
after several sharp contests, came suddenly upon the outworks of the main 
fort and took them by storm. The fight continuing, and General Milroy, 
who had previously sent off his artillery and wagons, finding himself in 
danger of being surrounded, spiked his guns and withdrew during the 
night with all his command. Four miles from Winchester, he was inter- 
cepted by a strong force of the enemy planted in the way with artillery, 
but after a desperate fight of two hours, succeeded in cutting his way 
through with the greater part of his army. Two regiments, 18th Conn, 
and 5th Maryland, being dissevered from the main body, after a fruitless 
resistance, were captured almost entire. 

Of the 18th C. V. GO were left dead upon the field, 90 more wounded, 
and 469 taken prisoners. In this last number Col. Ely and Lieut. Col. 
Nichols were included. Among the slain was the gallant Capt. Edward 
L. Porter, a fine scholar and an able officer, who enlisted at Norwich, 
though belonging to New London. He graduated at Yale College in 
1857, and was both endowed by nature and prepared by culture to embel- 
lish society, extend the domain of science, and benefit mankind. 

The captured men were immediately sent forward to Richmond, except 
the wounded, who were left at Winchester in charge of J. D. Ripley, the 
hospital steward of the 18th, who, though himself wounded, dressed the 
wounds of thirty-six others before attending to his own hurt.* That part 

* Mr. Ripley was afterward released by a party of Uuioa soldiers who made a dash- 



670 HISTOBY OF NORWICH. 

of the regiment which escaped capture, numbering about 200, assembled 
at Harrisburg under Major Peale. Most of the private soldiers that had 
been sent to Richmond, were after a few weeks paroled and exchanged, 
rejoining the regiment in October ; but the officers were confined for nine 
months in the Libby and Belle-island prisons, and not exchanged till the 
next March. Col. Ely was one of a party of Union officers that escaped 
from Libby in February, 1864, by tunneling, but was recaptured before 
reaching the Federal lines, and carried back to confinement. 

With its ranks partially restored, the 18th entered upon the campaign 
of 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley. It took part in the action at New- 
market, May 15th, and fought with conspicuous gallantry under General 
Hunter's command, at the severe battle of Piedmont, June 5th. Colonel 
Ely's report says : 

" The 18th Conn. Volunteers were on the right of Gen. Hunter's line of battle, its 
colors took the lead in the first charge, and floated defiant till we triumphed. All of 
the Color Guard were wounded except one, our banner riddled by miuie balls and can- 
non shot, and a loss of 127 in killed and wounded tells our story." 

Among the victims were Adjutant E. B. Culver, a brave and valued 
officer. Corporal J. T. Bradley, and pHvate William H. Hamilton, young 
men from Norwich who left good situations to devote themselves to the 
service of their country. Lieut. J. T. Maginnis of Co. E, after being 
released from his long captivity in Richmond, came home on a brief fur- 
louo-h, and had rejoined the regiment only a week before the battle. 
Faithful and gallant to the last, he fell at his post, mortally wounded, and 
died the next day.* 

The 18th was constantly engaged during this long campaign, either in 
toilsome journeys or severe battles ; marching upwards of 1,100 miles, 
and participating in six general engagements, — at Newmarket, Piedmont, 
Lynchburg, Snicker's Ford, the second battle of Winchester, and Berry- 
ville, all in Virginia. 

The regiment was finally mustered out of service at Harper's Ferry, 
June 27, 1865. It was then 550 strong, and had been three years in the 
field, but its ranks had been several times strengthened by recruits. Col. 
Ely had previously resigned, and the regiment was under the command 
of Lieut. Col. Peale, a veteran officer who had been upwards of four 

ing inroad upon the town. He rejoined his regiment at Harper's Ferry, and continued 
in the service to the close of the war, passing through all the dangers of captivity, the 
inarch, the camp, and the battle field, to meet death at last in an unexpected moment 
and in one of its most appalling forms. See ante, p. 638. 

* "In the deaths of Lieut. Maginnis and Adjutant Culver, the regiment lost two 
valuable ofiicers. In camp they inspired the soldiers to excel in a faithful and cheerful 
discharge of military duties, and on the battle-field encouraged the command by gallant 
examples." Col. Ely's report. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 671 

years almost constantly in the field, having recruited a company imme- 
diately after the fall of Fort Sumter, and continued in active service till 
the army began to disband. 

In the 19th regiment, as originally organized, Norwich had no volun- 
teers, and in the 20th C. V., "the Buckingham Legion," the only name 
from the place on the original muster-roll is that of Charles J. Arms, 
Adjutant, who was transferred to the staff of Brig. Gen. Harland. 

The 21st C. V. was the second regiment that had its rendezvous at 
Norwich, going into camp at the Fair Ground side by side with the 18th. 
It left the city Sept. 11, 1862. Hiram B. Crosby, Major; J. H. Lee, 
Surgeon ; Lieuts. C. A. Brand and James Stanley, with about 30 enlisted 
men, were gathered from the town. The first commanders of this regi- 
ment, Col. Button and Lieut. Col. Burpee, both died in June, 1864, of 
wounds received in the hard-fought battles in Virginia, and Major Crosby 
was appointed to the command. 

The 21st was the last of the seventeen regiments raised on the calls of 
1861-2, for three years service or during the war. But even before the 
departure of the 21st, the President's proclamation was out, issued Aug. 
4, 1862, calling for 300,000 of the militia for nine months service. Con- 
sequently there was no cessation of the recruiting business. Seven regi- 
ments were raised in Connecticut in compliance with this demand, and 
numbered from 22 to 28 inclusive. 

The 26th C. V. was drawn from New London and Windham counties, 
and had its camp-ground at Norwich, where it was organized in August ; 
Thomas C. Kingsley of Franklin, Colonel. The terras of the proclama- 
tion authorized a draft; the quota of Norwich was 139. This number 
was raised by voluntary enlistment, and there was no necessity for a con- 
scription. On the rolls of the regiment as it went into service, 141 are 
credited to Norwich, viz., 16 commissioned officers and 125 enlisted men. 
The officers from Norwich were Joseph Selden, Lieut. Colonel ; Ste- 
phen B. Meach, Adjutant ; B. F. Tracy, Quartermaster ; Elisha Phinney, 
Asst. Surgeon ; Capts. Clarke Harrington, Samuel T. Huntoon, Loren A. 
Gallop, John L. Stanton, and seven 1st and 2d Lieutenants. Rev. N. T. 
Allen of Jewett City went as Chaplain. 

The regiment mustered 900 strong, and was accepted Nov. 1 0th, leav- 
ing Norwich the 14th. It was sent immediately to New Orleans, and 
from thence up the Mississippi, where it joined the army of Gen, Bank3 
at the siege of Port Hudson, and participated in three sharp engagements 
before that nost, May 27th, and June 13tli and 14th. 

The first of these assaults upon the stronghold was maiked by great 
daring and fearful slaughter. The attack was made in four lines, of which 
the 26th Conn, formed one, and it was the first time that the regiment had 
been under the enemy's fire. The report says : 



672 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

"In advancing we encountered three high parallel fences, and in getting over them 
much confusion ensued, and before we could get into line the enemy opened upon us 
■with shell, shot, grape and canister, mowing down our men by scores." 

The killed and wounded of the 26th amounted to 107. The gallant 
Captain John Stanton of Norwich was shot dead. Colonel Kingsley was 
seriously wounded, and the command of the regiment devolved on Lieut. 
Col. Selden. In the engagement of June 14th, Lieut. Jacobs of Norwich 
received a mortal wound. 

This I'egiment, though in the field but nine months, returned with a roll 
of only 550. It had suffered greatly from sickness ; 27 had died on the 
battle-field, or of wounds received in battle, but more than thrice that 
number of disease. Some were left behind in hospitals ; seven were 
buried in their long route homeward ; and one — Miles Bromley of Jewett 
City — expired on the boat just before reaching home. The returning 
soldiers were mustered out of service at the Fair Ground, Dec. 20, 
1863.* 

Besides these regiments of Infantry, Connecticut raised in the first 
years of the war a Battalion of Cavalry, two companies of Light Bat- 
tery, and two regiments of Heavy Artillery. 

In the First Cavalry, Capts. Charles Farnsworth and Joab B. Rogers, 
with Lieuts. J. H. Kane and H. T. Phillips, were from Norwich. This 
battalion left the State in January, 1862. During the first year of service 
it was in the Mountain Department of Virginia, under Schenck, Fremont, 
and Milroy, continually engaged in reconnoitering and fighting, meeting 
with the hair-breadth escapes and participating in the dashing conflicts, 
that usually characterize border warfare. 

In April, 1863, Capt. Farnsworth while passing with a small detach- 
ment along a mountain path, was suddenly attacked by a concealed force, 
and received a severe shot-wound, the ball passing through his arm and 
side. At a later period of the war, when but partially recovered, he was 
taken prisoner near Harper's Ferry, and endured for eight months the 
dreary seclusion of a Richmond prison. 

The First Cavalry has a stirring and eventful history ; sweeping in its 
campaigns through Virginia and the Carolinas in many hazardous raids. 
It was changed from a battalion to a regiment, and out of its 1,650 recruits 
about 80 were credited to Norwich. 

Capt. Farnsworth, promoted Colonel, resigned in May, 1864. Capt. 
Rogers, who joined the battalion at its first muster in 1861, was honorably 
discharged, after nearly four years service, in February, 1865, Lieut. 
Kane, captured by the enemy in Wilson's raid, experienced for a few 

* Nov. 14, 1864, nearly 300 members of the 26th Regiment met at a social reunioa 
in Norwich: Col. Kingsley, chairman; Adj. Meech, secretary. An address was deliv- 
ered by Rev. N. T. Allen, who had been the chaplain of the regiment. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 673 

months the discomforts of the Libby prison. Lieut. Phillips, pi'omoted 
Captain, and J. L. Richardson, Adjutant, came home with the regiment in 
August, 1865. 

On the rolls of the Connecticut Light Battery, the only name from Nor- 
wich is that of Alfred P. Rockwell, Captain of the 1st C. L. B. This 
company landed at Beaufort in Februaiy, 1862, and was stationed for two 
years at points of hazard and responsibility on the coast, co-operating in 
the siege of Charleston. It was afterward attached to Butler's command 
in the advance to Richmond. Capt. Rockwell was then transferred to the 
infantry service, and appointed Colonel of the 6th C. V. 

The two regiments of Heavy Artillery were organized out of the 4th 
and 19th regiments of Infantry. The change of the 4th to 1st H. A. 
was effected in January, 1862. Henry W, Birge, Major of the 4th, was 
soon transferred to the 13th Infontry as its Colonel. Several of the lieu- 
tenants of the 1st Artillery were from Norwich. Lieut. Edwin L. Tyler 
entered this regiment, but was transferred to the staff of General Tyler. 
Lieut. Bela P. Learned retained his connection with the regiment to the 
close of the wai", having performed likewise for nearly two years various 
complicated duties as a field officer on the staff of General Abbott. He 
left the army with the rank of Captain and brevet Major.* 

Of the recruits raised by Norwich during the later years of the war, 
140 were assigned to the two regiments of Artillery. A fair proportion 
of these belonged to the town, and were good men and true, but many of 
the substitutes obtained abroad proved to be adepts in fraud and desperate 
deserters.f 

The 29th C. V. consisted wholly of colored troops with white commis-' 
sioned officers. This was raised in 1864, and sent to Annapolis, where it 
was joined to the Ninth Army Corps under General Burnside. Its roll 
numbered 1,005 officers and men, and it was regarded as a regiment of 
more than ordinary physical ability and moral excellence. The officers 
from Norwich were Captains David Torrance and Wm. J. Ross ; Lieuts. 
M. L. Leonard, Edward P. Rogers, and Ch. H. Carpenter, — transferred 
to this regiment from the 18th, with advanced rank. 

* " To Capt. Learned great credit is due for skillful and energetic performance of 
perplexing duties." Report of Gen. Abbott for 1864. 

t The following item illustrative of the golden opportunity offered to a faithful sub- 
stitute for making money, is from the Norwich Bulletin : 

"On the 6th of August, 1864, James W. Needham, a Canadian, enlisted at the 
Provost-Marshal's office in this city, as a substitute. He entered the 14th Regiment, 
was not absent from duty a single day, and was discharged July 10, 1865. He received 
as bounty $650, and as pay $192.20. On the 29th of July ho arrived in Norwich with 
the above sum in his pocket, less only $1.50 paid for rations on the journey from Wash- 
ington. He left for home a few days afterward." 

43 



674 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

The 29th obtained an honorable record for gallant conduct in the 
trenches before Petersburg, and for bravely facing the foe in several 
attacks upon the enemy's lines in the campaign of 1864. This regiment 
having been accepted as a part of the U. S. C. T., the officers were com- 
missioned by the President. 

A li.~t of commissioned officers from Norwich in service during the war, 
compiled with care from official sources, gives the following result : 
General officers, three, viz., Tyler, Birge, and Harland. 
Colonels, 5 Adjutants, 8 Captains, 45 

Lieut. Colonels, 7 Surgeons, 7 1st Lieutenants, 32 

Majors, 8 Quartermasters, 4 2d " 18 

Total, 'l37. [Norwich Bulletin, Oct. 31, 1865.] 

The above list is not confined to citizens of Norwich deriving their 
appointment from the State. It includes several natives of Norwich who 
have removed to other parts of the Union, and residents of the town who 
have received appointments from other States ; also several officers in 
colored regiments, or in other general service, commissioned by the United 
States. 

It includes Major Thomas Maguire, Capts. Berry and Scott, and Lieut. 
Brennan, who went from Norwich and joined the 2d N. Y. Artillery ; 

William T. Lusk, Lieut, in 79th N. Y. Vols, and A. A. G. on General 
Tyler's staff"; 

Frank S. Bond, Major U. S. V., on Tyler's staff" in the Ai-my of the 
Cumberland, and on the staff" of Rosecrans at Stone River, Chickamauga, 
and in the campaign against Price ; 

Henry Case, Colonel 169th Illinois,* and George R. Case, Captain La. 
Colored Troops, — both natives and former residents of Norwich ; 

Douglas R. Bushnell, Major 13th Illinois, killed at Chattanooga ; 

J. H. Piatt, of the Ohio Cavalry, Major by brevet U. S. A. ; 

Lieut. Col. Calvin Goddard, of Cleveland, Ohio, aid to General Rose- 
crans ; 

Captains Charles H. Rockwell and J. M. Huntington, U. S. V. ; 

Capt. John L. Spalding, of the 18th Mass. Vols. ; 

Lieut. P. Ludlow Hyde, 26th Iowa, killed at Arkansas post. 



* Col. Henry Case is a son of Dea. Samuel Case of Norwich Town. He graduated 
at Yale College in 1846, and has been successively engaged in the three departments 
of law, divinity, and arms, besides running at one time as a popular candidate for a 
seat in Congress. He practiced law for several years in Ohio ; was ordained in the 
First Congregational Church at Norwich, under the charge of Rev. Dr. Arms, July 
31 1855, and returned to the West as a Home Missionary; but when the war broke 
out, entered the army, and was with General Sherman in his grand march through the 
■Confederacy. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 675 

These officers, though natives of the place, or of Norwich parentage, 
are not technically regarded as Connecticut volunteers. The officers 
fi'om Norwich commissioned by the State were about 110, but these were 
not all in the service at the same time. Many of them were appointed as 
successors to the others. 

It is not easy to determine the exact number of private soldiers or 
enlisted men that Norwich contributed from her actual population to the 
service of the country. The town had the raising of the quota under her 
own management from the commencement of the war to July, 1863, but 
after that period the recruiting business was conducted by the provost- 
marshal of the district. During the first two years, covering the original 
organization of the volunteer force of Connecticut, the enlistments were 
almost wholly of town residents, but after that period they were princi- 
pally substitutes and hired recruits. 

The following statements are supposed to be nearly accurate : 
For the three months service Norwich furnished 12 commissioned offi- 
cers and 136 enlisted men. 

For the 1st Cavalry and 1st Artillery regiments, 10 officers and 32 
enlisted men. 

For the three years Infantry service, in the regiments from the 5 th to 
the 21st inclusive, 528 enlisted men. 

For the 26th regiment, nine months service, 126 enlisted men. 
Re-enlistment of veterans, 127. 

Hired recruits and substitutes procured in 1863 and '64, probably about 
280.* 

Colored men, volunteers and substitutes, 60. 

Volunteers, or substitutes for enrolled men, mustered into the navy, from 
Norwich, 89. 

These 89 seamen were taken up at different places, but credited to the 
town. Several of them enlisting as volunteers, received honorable appoint- 
ments as clerks and paymasters, and others as commanding officers. In 
1863, Warrington D. Roath and Robert B. Smith, volunteer lieutenants 
from Norwich, were in command, — the former of the Bignonia and the 
latter of the Nita, armed vessels of the fourth rate. Lewis G. Cook was 
acting master of the gunboat Octorora, 1 1 guns. 

John W. Bentley, Acting Master U. S. N., died at his residence in 
Norwich, May 27, 1864. He received an appointment in the navy soon 
after the war commenced, and had been for three years in active service. 
At the capture of Port Royal, he was in the Wabash, which was attached 

* Among the recruits enlisted at Norwich, under date of Feb. 1, 1864, are tlie follow- 
ing singular names : Kannoris Blosopolos and Michael Zamphiropolos. These were 
men from some remote part of Canada. They were assigned to the 13th Regiment, 
and the last-named appears on the list of wounded at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864. 



676 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

to Dupont's command. He had just been placed in command of the Ban- 
shee, a captured blockade-runner, and was preparing to put to sea, when 
seized with his last illness, which in one week ended in death. 

Commodore Joseph Lanman, of the regular naval service, is a native 
of Norwich. His original entry has the date of Feb. 1, 1826, which gives 
him forty years of naval experience. Twenty-four years of this term is 
credited to him as sea-service ; the remainder occupied in shore duty or 
unemployed. He is now in command of the Minnesota, screw-steamer, 
52 guns. 

The Soldiers' Aid Association of Norwich, embodying the gifts and 
labors of the feminine portion of the community, displayed an amount of 
volunteer contribution, both of funds and labor, truly munificent. The 
patriotism and self-denial which prompted these efforts never slackened, 
but carried them forward from year to year, with persevering energy, 
while the war continued. It was not so much in the character of Eliza- 
beth Frys or Florence Nightingales that this zeal was exhibited, — not 
particularly in visits to battle-fields and hospitals, as inspectors, assistants, 
and nurses, though instances of such benevolent action were not wholly 
wanting,* but rather in making garments, preparing grateful food, medi- 
cines, comforts and delicacies, corresponding and giving judicious coun- 
sels and cheering words, and in collecting books, papers, and a variety of 
refreshments to add to the well-being of the soldier. 

Such associations occupy the place of the Angel of Mercy, following 
the track of the Demon of War, and repairing in part his ravages. It is 
thus that families at home co-operate with soldiers in the field, and woman 
performs her part in sustaining the Union and delivering the oppressed. 

The ladies of the Soldiers' Aid dissolved their Association in January, 
1866. 



The news of the surrender by General Lee of the grand Confederate 
Army reached Norwich at an early hour, Monday morning, April 10, 
1865. At day-break, by order of the Mayor, guns were fired and the 
bells rung to spread the tidings abroad. It was a day of great rejoicing. 
People met in the streets with hearty greetings and congratulations. 
Nothing was left of the Confederacy but the army of Johnston and the 



* During the whole war, Dr. Claudius B. Webster and Mrs. Webster, from Nor- 
wich, gave their personal services to the sick and wounded soldiers of the Union army ; 
either stationed at hospitals, or following in the rear of a marching army. Dn Web- 
ster was an agent of the Sanitary Commission, and a part of the time agent for the 
Connecticut regiments in the Department of the Cumberland. 



HISTORY OF NOEWICH. 677 

resistance of Mobile and Texas, and these were involved in the great 
surrender. The war was therefore suddenly at an end. Victory, union, 
peace and thanksgiving were now the glorious pass-words. 

At 12 o'clock an impromptu jubilee-meeting was held in Breed Hall, 
and the great event celebi'ated — not with tumult and noise, but with earn- 
est expressions of gratitude and praise. Cheering addresses were made, 
prayers offered, and hymns chanted and sung.* It was a day of triumph 
for the prospect of a restored Union, and of joyful hope for an emancipated 
race.t 

This exulting scene was destined to be followed by a speedy and terri- 
ble revulsion. At this period great events are crowded together in the 
history of our country. On Friday, April 14, the fourth anniversary of 
the surrender of F'ort Sumter to the Confederates, President Lincoln 
was assassinated. The news was received here, as elsewhere, with 
amazement, horror, and indignation, succeeded by the bitter agony of 
grief. Business for a time almost ceased, and a scene of universal mourn- 
ing was exhibited. Governor Buckingham, Senator Fostei", and several 
Other citizens immediately repaired to Washington. Mr. Foster, in virtue 
of his otfice as President, pro, tem., of the Senate, became the nominal 
Vice-President of the United States, and in case of the death of Mr. 
Johnson, President, until another could be chosen. 

Wednesday, the 19th, was the day of the Funeral Services in Wash- 
ington, and religious solemnities were held in accordance with them 
through the Union. At Norwich the bells were tolled, and guns fired 
every half hour ; flags lowered and banded with crape ; many private 
houses, and all public places, draped in mourning. At 12 o'clock, manu- 
factories, work-shops, and places of business were closed, and the churches 
opened for devotional exercises. The next Sunday, discourses adapted to 
the event were delivered in churches hung with heavy drapery, and 
listened to with that profound emotion which is usually excited only by 
personal bereavement. 



At the celebration of the 4th of July, 1865, the returned soldiers were 
regarded with special interest. They were a distinguishing feature that 
separated the 89th anniversary from all other commemorations of the day 
in Norwich. Generals Birge and Harland, natives of the town, were 
present. Groups of officers and veterans, that had served in various reg- 

— e . . ^ . — . . ■ : — > - 

* The whole congregation joined in singing "Coronation " and "America." 

t Jan. 2, 1863, by order of the Mayor, 100 guns were fired, and the church bells in 

the city rung for an hour, in honor of the President's Proclamation of Emancipation 

to the slaves in the seceding States. 



678 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

iments, some of them from other towns, appeared in the procession. The 
stoi'm-flag that had been used in the assault upon Port Hudson was borne 
through the streets. The 18th regiment having been recently mustered 
out of service, the companies belonging to Norwich returned home just in 
time to take part in these festivities. Lieut. Col. Peale, with about one 
hundred of his soldiery, arranged under their respective officers, formed 
an interesting part of the line. They bore with them their regimental 
standard, but after reaching the Plain, the Mayor of the City presented 
to Col. Peale the original flag, under which they were mustered three 
years before. This flag, when more than half the regiment was captured 
at Winchester, was torn from its staff by the standard-bearer, and con- 
cealed under his uniform until he was safe from pursuit.* 

In the long procession at this time were several carriages occupied by 
a band of venerable citizens of the place, aged 70 and upwards — 

Veterans of the War of 1812.t 

Another unique feature of the celebration was the appearance in the 
line of several Fenian Circles, from this and the neighboring towns. It 
was the first time that these organized bands had appeared in this vicinity 
in a public procession with distinctive badges. 

There seemed to be no special point of time at which the war closed. 
Opposition ceased ; the sounds of strife died away, and the discharged 
soldiers began to return. They were every where received with acclama- 
tions, and banquets were spread before them. There was weeping over 
widows and orphans, but generous applause for the men of a hundred 
battles. 

It was a pleasant circumstance that the disbanded soldiery retui-ned 
quietly to their old homes and pursuits, resuming, in most cases, their accus- 
tomed avocations, as if only a week, or a month, had intervened. The 
farmer returned to his field, the operative went back to his factory, the 
mechanic to his trade ; mercantile clerks, agents, and assistants in banks 



* Sergt. George Torrey, of North Woodstock, was the gallant soldier that saved the 
State Color of the 18th regiment, at Winchester, by wrapping it around his person, 
and escaping to our lines. — Conn. War Rec, p. 23. 

t Names and ages of eighteen veterans of the War of 1812, who were in the proces- 
sion July 4, 1 8G5, and formed themselves into an association to meet annually, choos- 
ing General Williams for their President : 

Isaac Bromley, 74, Charles Gale, 69. Elisha Mansfield, 70. 

Samuel Case, 74. Lewis Hyde, 72. John Nichols, 80. 

Dr. Eleazar Downing, 78. Capt. Wm. Kelly, 81, John Starkweather, 75. 

Eber Edwards, 74. James Rose Ledyard, 74. Joseph Tyler, 73. 

Benjamin Ford, 73. Frederick Lester, 72. Gen. Wm. Williams, 77. 

Othniel Gager, 71, Asa Manning, 70, Elkanah Williams, 82, 



HISTOEY OF NORWICH. 679 

and insurance offices, returned to their desks, and were re-invested with 
their former responsibilities. In special instances, the General might be 
seen again busy with his law-books, the Colonel and the Captain again 
teaching school.* 

When the war commenced, General Birge was one of the Governor's 
Aids, and was actively engaged in raising and sending forth the three 
months men. He entered the service in June, 1861, and in September, 
1863, received the appointment of Brigadier-General of Volunteers, in 
acknowledgment of his gallantry at the siege of Port Hudson. The 
next year he was breveted Major- General for services in Sheridan's cam- 
paign in the Shenandoah Valley, and in June, 1865, was appointed to the 
command of the Military District of Savannah. 

Gen. Banks, in his report of the Red River expedition, alluding to the 
Cane River fight, says — 

" General Birge, as in all actions in which he has been engaged, deserved and re- 
ceived the highest commendation." 

General Harland entered into the service upon the first call of the 
country, and rose rapidly through the degrees of Captain and Colonel, to 
the command of a division at Antietam. He was then appointed Briga- 
dier-General, and stationed in the Military District of North Carolina. 
His last fight was at Kinston, in that State, where he commanded a divis- 
ion under General Scholfield, in the repulse of the Confederate forces 
under General Bragg, in March, 1865. 

General Harland, Lieut. Colonels Peale and Hale, Captains Lilly, 
McCord, Merwin, Moore, Parker, Ross, Tiffiiny, and other officers and 
soldiers that were engaged in the first expedition of 1861, have the satis- 
faction, not only of seeing the war through, but of having been a part of 
it from the beginning to the end. 

Brig. Gen. Tyler resigned his command in 1864, and about the same 
time removed from Norwich to Red Bank, in New Jersey. 

Col. Wm. T. Aiken, of Norwich, held the office of Quartermaster Gen- 
eral of the State troops during the war.f 

*An amusing illustration of this recurrence to former pursuits was furnished by 
Lieut. Sweet, who, before the war, excited quite a sensation by walking across the 
Shetucket on a rope, and after returning from service, in August, 1865, advertised that 
he would repeat the same exploit. 

t Capt. Eleazar H. Ripley, of "Windham, enlisted at Norwich in the company of 
Capt. Harland, in May, 1861 ; went out again in the 8th regiment, and lost his left arm 
in battle, but was promoted Captain for meritorious service, and continued in the army 
till it was disbanded. 



CHAPTER LII. 

Necrology of the War in relation to Norwich. 

Alphabetical list of soldiers that fell in battle, or died of casualties and 
disease, consequent upon the war : 

William R. Allyn, aged 18, farmer, enlisted in 14th C. V., July, 1862 ; 
died March 9, 1863. (8 m. in service.)* 

Alexander S. Avery, sergeant 5th C. V., killed in battle at Cedar Moun- 
tain, Aug. 9, 1862. (1 y. 18 d.) 

Courtland G. Avery, corporal in Stanton's company, 26th C. V., died 
of fever near Port Hudson, June 24, 1863, aged about 30. He was a 
son of Alfred Avery, of Scotland, Ct., but for many years a resident in 
Norwich. 

Frederick W. Baker, 1st Conn. Cavalry, enlisted Jan. 12, and died Jan. 
27, 1864 ; 15 days in the service. 

Charles H. Beckwith, book-binder ; served in the three months cam- 
paign ; enlisted again in the 18th C. V., and died Dec. 1, 1862, aged 22. 
(7 m.) 

Henry M. Beckwith, 1st Artillery, died in hospital, near Alexandria, 
Oct. 10, 1863. (1 y. 5 m.) 

Herbert E. Beckwith, clerk, 18 years of age, son of Elisha V. Beck- 
with, of Norwich; served 18 months in 10th C. V., and subsequently as 
corporal in 2d Mass. Heavy Artillery. He was taken prisoner at Plym- 
outh, N. C, confined 8 months at Andersonville, Ga., and Florence, Ala., 
where he suffered severely from the want of food and clothing — was 
paroled in an exhausted, dying condition, and landed at Annapolis, where 
he rallied a little at sight of the Union flag, but died six days afterward, 
Dec. 30, 1864, aged 21. At Andersonville, in that loathsome abode of 
lingering torture, this young man wrote in his diary, " At times, I fancy I 
hear the church bells in Norwich." 

William A. Berry, a young Englishman that had recently settled at 
Greeneville, aged about 22. He was one of the first to enlist in Capt. 



* The terms of service, in this chapter, are not always precisely accurate, but are 
given as near estimates of the time. 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 681 

Frank Chester's company of the Buckingham Rifles, the first company 
raised in Norwich, and was commissioned 2d Lieutenant. He joined 
afterward Capt. Maguirc's company of the 2d N. Y. Light Artillery. 
This regiment was long on garrison duty at Washington, where Lieut. 
Berry was promoted Captain. He was killed near Petersburg, June 5, 
1864, and buried on the battle-field ; but his remains were afterward 
brought to Norwich, in charge of his comrade in arms, Capt. Thomas 
Scott, and interred in Yantic Cemetery, Nov. 3, 1864. A gallant soldier, 
faithful to his adopted country. (3 y. 2 m.) 

John Best, of Greeneville, 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery, enlisted recruit, 
Dec. 30, 1863 ; killed near Petersburg. 

David Black, aged 38, 13th C. V. ; killed at Georgia Landing, La., 
Oct. 27, 1862. (10 m.) 

Edward Blomley, of Greeneville, 8th C. V. ; captured in an engage- 
ment upon the Petersburg R. R., May 7, 18G4, and died at Anderson- 
ville, Oct. 3, aged 39. A re-enlisted veteran. 

Lemuel Bolman, fai-mer, aged 44, 12th C. V., died Aug. 22, 1863. 
(ly. 8 m.) 

Henry A. Bottomly, manufacturer at Yantic ; corporal in the company 
of Capt. Dennis, 7th C. V. He had re-enlisted as a veteran, and died 
during his veteran furlough, while on a visit with his family near Boston, 
March 13, 1864, aged 34, — of disease contracted in the service. He was 
brought to Norwich and interred in Yantic Cemetery. 

John T. Bradley, aged 19, corporal 18th C V., killed at Piedmont, June 
5, 1864. (1 y. 10 m.) 

Cha7'les A. Breed, Lieutenant in Capt. Ward's company, 8th C. V. He 
died at Newport News, of typhoid fever, July 30, 1862. At the time of 
his death he was detailed for duty on the Signal Corps of Burnside's 
division. His remains were brought home in charge of his friend, Lieut. 
Wait, and the funeral services were held at the 2d Congregational Church, 
Aug. 2d. Lieut. Breed had served in the 3d regiment for three months, 
enlisted again for three years, and had been engaged in battle at Roanoke 
and Newbern. The Common Council and the City Guards attended his 
funeral with every mark of respect, and the officers of the 8th regiment 
bore testimony to his patriotism and social virtues, and sent their condo- 
lence to " his widowed mother who had given two sons to sustain the cause 
of constitutional liberty." 

Benry Brooks, gardener, aged 44, a native of Three Rivers, Canada 
East, but for a number of years resident in Norwich ; enlisted in 26tli 
C. v., died July 3, 1863, in hospital, of wounds received in the first charge 
upon Port Hudson, May 27th. 

Daniel H. Brown, mechanic, aged 43, 9th C. V., died at New Orleans, 
May 14, 1862. (7 m.) 



682 HISTORY OF NORWICH. ^ 

David H. Brown, farmer, aged 23, 13th C. V., died May 15, 1864. A 
re-enlisted veteran. 

Charles E. Bur dick, 10th C. V., son of Evan Burdick, architect, died 
in the hospital at Newbern, N. C, Jan. 16, 1863, aged 19. (1 y. 3 m.) 

Horatio Burdick, of Greeneville, aged 30, 18th C. V., died at Fort 
McHenry, Baltimore, Oct. 19, 1862. (3 m.) 

Theodore Burdick, 1st Lieutenant 7th C. V.; commissioned Captain, 
July 1, 1862; killed in action at Morris Island, July 11, 1863, aged 25. 
(1 y. 10 m.) 

Albert Burnett, mechanic, aged 24, 18th C. V., killed at Winchester, 
June 14, 1863. (10 m.) 

Daniel Carney, operative, of Greeneville, aged 18, 18th C. V., killed 
at Snicker's Ferry, July 18, 1864. (2 y.) 

Michael Carver, teamster, aged 18, corporal 1st Conn. Cavalry, killed 
while on picket duty at Stafford Court House, Va., January 3, 1863. 
(1 y. 2 m.) 

David C. Case, son of Deacon Samuel Case, of Norwich Town, 3d C. 
v., killed at Bull Run by a cannon-ball, and died in an hour, July 21, 
1861, aged 26. He was the first soldier from Norwich killed in the war 
of the rebellion. 

Henry F. Champtin, 10th C. V., captured while on picket duty near St. 
Augustine, Fla., died at Andersonville, Aug. 11, 1864, aged 21. This 
young man was brought home with the Norwich dead, and interred with 
them in Yantic Cemetery, but enlisted at Sprague. 

Giles D. Chapman, farmer, aged 41, 26th C. V. He was sick when 
the regiment left Port Hudson, and died soon after reaching home, Aug. 
19, 1863. 

Alfred S. Chappell, 18th C. V., carpenter, aged 37, died Sept. 17, 
1863. (1 y. 2 m.) 

Michael Gorhett, mechanic, aged 25, 13th C. V., died of wounds and 
disease. May 25, 1863. (1 y. 5 m.) 

John Crawford, of Greeneville, aged 23, 18th C. V., a young man of 
estimable character, who died of wounds, at Winchester, July 2, 1863. 

(1 yO 

Byron Crocker, aged 18, 13th C. V., son of late Thomas Crocker, of 
Norwich. He was one of the party that volunteered to storm the fortifi- 
cations at Port Hudson with Gen. Birge, and died of wounds received, at 
Georgia Landing, July 15, 1864. (2^ y.) 

John Gullen, 21st C. V., died in hospital at Newbern, March 22, 1864, 
aged 38. (1 y. 8 m.) 

Enoch Benjamin Culver, 18th C. V., a native of New Yoi'k, but for 
several years a resident in Norwich. While the regiment was encamped 
at Baltimore, he was detailed and employed as a clerk at Gen. Schenck's 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 683 

head-quarters, and was not with the regiment at the time of its defeat and 
capture at Winchester, but rejoined the remnant that escaped, at Harper's 
Ferry, and was promoted Lieutenant and Adjutant. He was mortally 
wounded at Piedmont, June 5, and died the next day, aged 21. His re- 
mains were subsequently recovered and transmitted to his parents in New 
York. (2 y. nearly.) 

Alonzo S. Cushman, operative, aged 18, 11th C. V.; chosen corporal; 
mortally wounded at Swift Creek, Va., May 5, and died May 9, 1864. 
He had re-enlisted as a veteran. 

William Davis, 1st Conn. Cavalry, captured at Craig's Church, Va., 
May 5, 1864, and died at Andersonville, Aug. 30, aged 42. (4 m.) 

William L. Davis, carpenter, aged 21, 18th C. V., killed at Piedmont, 
Va., June 5, 1864. (1 y. 10 m.) 

John Delany, of Greeneville, paper-maker, aged 18, 18th C. V., killed 
at Snicker's Ferry, Va., July 18, 1864. (2 y.) 

Edward Dorey, operative, aged 26, 14th C. V. ; chosen corporal ; died 
of wounds received at Antietam, Oct. 8, 1862. (3|^ m.) 

Sylvanus Downer, 18th C. V. He had been Chief Engineer of the 
Fire Department in Norwich, was captured at Winchester, exchanged, 
rejoined his regiment, and was promoted color-sergeant. Afterward 
wounded at Piedmont, he was taken prisoner a second time, and died at 
Andersonville, Nov. 5, 1864, aged 44. (2 y. 3 m.) 

James Dugan, machinist, aged 19, 26th C. V., wounded in the hand at 
Port Hudson, and died of disease on board the steamer, in returning home, 
July 28, 1863. 

Thomas Dugan, 21st C. V. ; enlisted in August, 1862, and died at 
Andersonville. 

George F. Edgerton, aged 35, 26th C. V., died at Port Hudson, July 
23, 1863 ; brought home and interred. 

Charles Tracy Fanning, clerk, aged 18, 18th C. V., mortally wounded 
at Piedmont, June 5, 1864. Remains interred at Norwich, Oct. 18, 1865. 
(1 y. 10 m.) 

Henry C. Fanning, aged 18, 8th C. V., died Oct. 28, 1862, of wounds 
received at Sharpsburg, Md. (13 m.) 

Theodore A. Fanning, painter, aged 24, 8th C. V., died of wounds re- 
ceived at Sharpsburg, Md., Oct. 19, 1862. 

Thomas Fillburne, stone-layer, aged 25, 7th C. V., killed at Drur/s 
Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864. (2^ y.) 

David M. Ford, of Greeneville, aged 20, llth C. V., killed at Sharps- 
burg, Md., Sept. 17, 1862. (10 ra.) 

Joseph Forstner, aged 37, corporal in Capt. Peale's company, 18th C. 
v., died Aug. 9, 1863. (1 y.) 

Walter 31. Fox, 2d Artillery, killed at Petersburg, June 22, 1864. 
(5 m.) 



684 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

Henry G. Gaskell, aged 33, son of Benjamin Gaskell, of Greeneville, 
18th C. V. He was wounded at Piedmont, taken prisoner near Winches- 
ter, and kept long in barbai'ous captivity. When at length released, he 
was so reduced by exposure and starvation, that he died while en route to 
be exchanged at Danville, Va., Feb. 20, 1865. (2 y.) 

Alfred M. Goddard, Lieutenant 8th C. V., son of the late L. H. God- 
dard, of Norwich, a young man of distinguished enterprise, superior nat- 
ural endowments, and winning manners. He had been for several years 
at the Sandwich Islands, engaged as a commercial agent, participating in 
many varied pursuits, amid different races of men, and diversities of cli- 
mate. He had traversed the Pacific Ocean from the Arctic to the Antarctic 
latitudes ; had tarried for months at a time on the desolate island of 
McKean, with no companions but a few workmen and sailors ; had visited 
Mauritius, and taken the East Indian route homeward, by the Red Sea 
and Europe. Having closed his agency at the Islands, he came home for 
the last time in May, 1863, and entered the army in July. He was em- 
ployed for several months on the staff of General Harland, but joined his 
regiment at the siege of Petersburg, and was mortally wounded in the 
battle of May 7, 1864. This was Lieut. Goddard's first regular engage- 
ment, but his conduct was that of a veteran. While gallantly leading on 
his men, near the close of a day of hard fighting, he was struck to the 
ground, and though carefully taken from the field, and removed the next 
day to Fortress Moni'oe, where he received every attention that surgical 
skill and kindness could bestow, he died May 9th. He was 27 years of age ; 
a short life in years, but long if measured by personal worth, duties per- 
formed, and the experience of changing scenes and adventures. His gen- 
erous disposition, manly bearing, lively and affable manners, had particu- 
larly endeared him to his friends. Even when a boy, as son and bi'other, 
he had acted the part of a man, and the sacrifice of his young life fell like 
a heavy blow upon the hearts at home. (9^ m.) 

William H. Hamilton, student, aged 18, 18th C. V., killed at Piedmont, 
June 5, 1864, nearly 2 years in service. (1 y. 10 m.) 

William G. Hayward, mechanic, 18th C. V., captured at Winchester, 
was exchanged and rejoined his regiment ; captured again at Newmarket, 
Va., May 15, 1864, and died at Andersonville, Sept. 8, 1864, aged 34. 
(2 y. 1 m.) 

John G. Holwell, aged 40, 11th C V., killed at Sharpsburg, Sept. 17, 
1862. (10 m.) 

Thomas D. Huntington, son of Benjamin Huntington, of Norwich 
Town, aged 19, 8th C. V.; enlisted Sept. 21, and went into camp at 
Hartford, was taken sick, returned home, and died Sept. 29, 1861, 8 days 
after being mustered into service. 

WiUiam HutcUns, aged 20, 11th C. V., died June 14, 1862. (7 m.) 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 685 

Hervey F. Jacobs, book-keeper, 2d Lieutenant, 26th C. V. Lieutenant 
Jacobs had resided about eight years in Norwich, in the family of his 
relative, L. W. Carroll, Esq. He was well educated, and at the opening 
of the war was preparing to enter into business with flattering prospects. 
Patriotism and a high sense of duty carried him into the army. In the 
second assault upon Port Hudson, June 14, 1863, he was detailed to the 
command of a company, and while leading on his men, was fatally wound- 
ed by the explosion of a 12-pounder spherical case shot (or shell) fired 
by the enemy. The same shot killed four men outright, and wounded 
sixteen others. He died of his wounds in the hospital at Baton Rouge, 
La., July 5,* aged 24. 

A companion who was with Lieut. Jacobs on the field of battle, says, 
" AYhen that dreadful shell came which killed and disabled twenty men, 
including himself, he was cheei'ing and encouraging his men, and pressing 
forward with the assurance of success. After he was wounded, the noble 
spirit that animated him was manifested by his refusing to be taken to the 
rear, until all the wounded about him had been removed.f 

Marquis L. Johnson, mechanic, aged 39, 13th C. V., enlisted in Janu- 
ary, 1862, was discharged in July, on account of infirm health, and died at 
sea, on his way home. (6 m.) 

Stephen T. Johnson, aged 39, 26th C. V., died in the hospital at Mound 
City, 111., Aug. 3, 1863. 

Thomas F. Jones, enlisted recruit, 18th C. V., killed at Winchester, 
June 15, 1863. (1 m.) 

James Kennely, 10th C. V. He enlisted as a recruit in January, 1864, 
and was killed at Petersburg the first of April. (2|- m.) 

John Kelly, aged 18, enlisted recruit, 9th C. V., died July 24, 1862. 
(8 m.) 

John Kerr, of Greeneville, aged 44, 18th C. V., wounded and taken 
prisoner at Winchester, exchanged, transferred to InvaUd Corps, and died 
of disease contracted in the service. 

David Lacy, 2d Artillery, enlisted recruit, killed at Cold Harbor, Va., 
June 1, 1864. (4 m.) 

Daniel Laird, student, aged 18, 13th C. V., killed at Winchester, Sept. 
19,1864. (2y. 7 m.) 

De Witt C. Lathrop, physician, aged 42. Appointed 1st Assistant Sur- 
geon 8th C. V. Died at Newbern, April 18, 1862, a victim to over exer- 



* In the same hospital, two days later, died his brother, Wyman D. Jacobs, of the 
50th Mass. regiment, aged 21. They were sons of Joseph E. Jacobs, of Thomp- 
son, Ct. 

t A discourse in memory of Liout. Jacobs was preached in the Central Baptist 
Church, after the remains were brought home, Nov. 1, 1863, by Kov. Samuel Graves, 
pastor of the church. 



686 HISTORY OP NORWICH. 

» 

tion and extreme anxiety for the wounded men under his care. He was a 
man of great moral and professional worth, and his death was a heavy- 
loss to the service, as well as to his family, and the community at home. 
His remains were interred at Windham, where most of his professional 
life had been passed, and where a monument, erected by the members of 
his regiment, testifies to the affectionate esteem in which he was held by 
his comrades. (6^ m.) 

Patrick Lloyd, iron-worker, aged 25, 14th C.V., killed at Spotsylvania, 
May 11, 1864. (1 y. 10 m.) 

Henry JV. Loomis, seaman, aged 18, 21st C. V., mortally wounded Aug. 
19, 1864. (2 y.) 

Edward P. Manning, Commissary Sergeant and 2d Lieutenant 26th 
C. v., a young man of unblemished character, a member of the Baptist 
Church, and one of whom his companions said, " He carried his religion 
with him into the army, and was as ready to fight under the banner of the 
Cross, as under the flag of his country." He served out the time of his 
enlistment, constantly on duty, acting at different times as Commissary, 
Quartermaster, Adjutant and Lieutenant, came home with his regiment, 
and died on the day it was mustered out of service, aged 28. Funeral 
services were held in Norwich, but the interment was at Putnam, where 
his parents reside. 

Patrick Maro, mechanic, aged 18, 10th C. V., killed at Newbern, N. C, 
March 14, 1862. (5^ m.) 

May B. Martin, of Greeneville, student, aged 18, 18th C. V., a well- 
educated, promising youth, died of wounds received at Winchester, July 
2, 1863. (11 m.) 

Ronald McAllister, Jr., of Greeneville, farmer, 11th C. V., killed at 
Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. (His father, of the same name, served 
14 months in the same regiment.) (2 y. 7 m.) 

John Mc Call, of Yantic village, aged 25, enlisted as a private in 8th C. 
v., Sept. 21, 1861 ; was chosen sergeant, and in Feb., 1863, promoted to 
a captaincy. He was in the North Carolina campaign under Burnside ; 
fought afterward at South Mountain, at Antietam, and in many other 
sanguinai'y engagements, always noted for bravery and skillful manage- 
ment. Li his third year's experience of marchings, fightings, wounds, and 
captivity, he was killed at Drury's Bluff, May 16, 1864. 

James McCracken, of Greeneville, boiler-maker, aged 28, 18th C. V., 
killed at Winchester, June 15, 1863. (10|- m.) 

James S. McDavid, 1st Conn. Cavalry, captured at Ashland station, 
June 1, 1864, and died at Andersonville, Aug. 21, aged 17 y., 9 m., 20 d. 
(7i m.) 

William Mc Knight, 12 th C. V., died at Brashear City, La., Aug. 17, 
1863. (1 y. 8^ m.) 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 687 

Thomas Mc3Iahon, enlisted recruit, 18th C. V., killed at Piedmont, Va., 
June 5, 18G4 (G^ m.) 

Gilbert McMahon, 2d Conn. Artillery, killed at Piedmont, June 5, 
1864. (5 m.) 

John McSooley, shoe-maker, aged 35, 9th C. V., died April 18, 1863. 
(ly.6m.) 

James Mc Vay, laborer, aged 43, 14th C. V., fell out of the ranks in the 
march to Autietam, and died of exhaustion, Sept. 9, 1862. Less than 2 
months in service. 

John Meany, laborer, aged 35, 9th C. V., died Nov. 12, 1862. (13^ m.) 
Charles Meisser, a Gei'man, aged 24, 6th C. V., killed at Morris Island, 
July 18, 1863. (1 y. 9^ m.) , 

Jacob W. Miller, Jr., son of J. "W. Miller, of Norwich Town, aged 16, 
enlisted soon after the war commenced, in the Slst N. Y. V., which was 
recruited in New York City. He was with his regiment in the North 
Carolina campaign under Burnside ; in the army of the Potomac at South 
Mountain and Antietam ; in Grant's army at Vicksburg, and in the ad- 
vance to Richmond through the Wilderness. " In the conflict near Spot- 
sylvania, May 18, 1864, while in front of the fight, he was shot through 
the heart, and as his commanding officer wrote to his friends, died with his 
face to the enemy while advancing on their work. He had never been 
absent an hour from his post during his connection with the army, and was 
buried on the battle-field."* 

James Morningham, laborer, aged 33, 9th C. V., died July 21, 1862. 
(10 m.) 

Oramel M. Molt, farmer, aged 18, llth C. V. ; chosen corporal ; re-en- 
listed veteran in January, 1864, and was killed near Petersburg the fol- 
lowing May. (2 y. 8 m.) 

Peter Mulligan, operative, aged 44, 26th C. V. He returned with his 
regiment from Port Hudson, but in a sickly condition, and died before he 
was mustered out of service. 

James Murphy, laborer, aged 19, 9th C. V., died August 16, 1862. 
(10 ra.) 

Dennis Murphy, laborer, 21st C. V., died March 12, 1864. (1 y. 
7 m.) 

James Ji. Nickels, a native of Maine,* who had resided several years in 
Norwich, employed as a clerk. He served in Capt. Harland's company 
of three months men ; enlisted again as a private in the 14th regiment. 
May, 1862 ; was chosen sergeant, and by successive promotions, made 
Captain before he was 21 years of age. He fought at Antietam, at Fred- 
ericksburg, at Chancellorsville, and in innumerable other less noted en- 



* Norwich Aurora. 



688 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

gagements ; passed unhurt through the terrible battles of the Wilderness 
and Spotsylvania ; led the regiment in a brilliant charge at Cold Harbor, 
for which he was complimented by the commanding officer, and served in 
front of Petersburg, till Aug. 27, 1864, when, in the sanguinary struggle 
at Ream's Station, he was wounded, and left by the retreating iSrmy on 
the field of battle. Here he was stripped by the rebels and left to die, 
but during the night, the adjutant of his regiment found him, and pro- 
cured his removal to the lines. He languished for six mouths, was several 
times thought out of danger, but his constitution was broken down, and 
he died in hospital at Washington, D. C, Feb. 20, 1865, aged 22. A 
pure-minded patriot, and as a soldier, intrepid and brave. The manly 
fortitude and cheerfulness with which he bore his long confinement, equaled 
in heroic endurance his conduct on the battle-field. 

Joseph H. Nickerson, sergeant 11th C. V. ; promoted Captain, Aug. 6, 
1863. After participating in many hard-fought battles, and coming home 
with his regiment on their veteran furlough, his health failed, and he 
resigned in October, 1864. He was afterward appointed to office in the 
Provost-Marshal's Department, but died May 15, 1865, aged 23. He 
was honored with a military funeral, six discharged officers officiating as 
pall-bearers, and the Common Council attending in a body. (3 y.) 

Charles G. Noyes, student, aged 20, 18th C. V., wounded at Winchester, 
and died June 15, 1863. A young man of promising talents and correct 
deportment, the only child of his parents. Such bereavements show the 
intense cruelty of war. 

William T. V. Osborne, a conscript from Norwich, who died at the 
Knight Hospital in New Haven, Sept. 2, 1863. Brought home for inter- 
ment. 

Josiah L. D. Otis, physician, aged 41, enlisted in 14th C. V., company 
of Capt. J. B. Coit ; wounded at Fredericksburg, and died, after extreme 
suffering, at a hospital in Washington, Feb. 10, 1863. (6^ m.) 

James Parkerson, fireman, aged 27, 26th C. V., mortally wounded at 
Port Hudson, May 27, and died June 1, 1863. (9 m.) 

Charles H. Potter, machinist, aged 24, 9th C. V., died Aug. 10, 1862, 
at Baton Rouge, La. (9 m.) 

William Reynolds, aged 18, sergeant 13th C. V., mortally wounded at 
Cane River Creek, April 23, 1804. A veteran. (2 y. 4 m.) 

Frederick E. Schalk, aged 24. He served as a private soldier in the 
3d regiment, and as sei'geant and lieutenant in the 14th. In one of the 
sharp engagements in the early part of 1864, when the army was ad- 
vancing into Virginia, he was severely wounded, and died in the hospital 
at Fredericksburg, May 6, 1864. The funeral services were held at 
Norwich, but he was interred at Lebanon, his native place, the Norwich 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 689 

Light Infantry escorting the remains thither, and firing a parting volley 
over his grave.* 

Henry M. Scholfield, a promising young man who enlisted in the 1st C. 
v., April 22, 1861, and afterward entered the 14th regiment. He died 
of wounds received at Antietam, Sept. 28, 1862. 

John Shea, 13th C. V., died July J 8, 1863. (1 y. 6 m.) 

William 31. Sherman, sergeant 26th C. V., died June 28, 1863, in hos- 
pital at New Orleans, of wounds received at Port Hudson, aged 25 years 
and 9 months. Funeral services at the Free Chui'ch, NorAvich. 

John Simpson, sergeant 9th C. V., aged 27, died at New Orleans, Oct. 
9,1862. (ly.) 

James Souter, of Greeneville, clerk, aged 20, 11th C. V., killed at Cold 
Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. (2 y. 7 m.) 

John L. Stanton, Captain Co. G, 26th C. V. A gallant soldier, killed 
in the first terrific assault upon Port Hudson, May 27, 1863, aged 44. 

3Iyron W. Sterrett, aged 20, 26th C. V., missing after the attack upon 
Port Hudson, and never heard from afterward. 

Joseph Stokes, 2d C. V., died in hospital, July 25, 1861. 

Francis W. Taylor, manufacturer, aged 55, 18th C. V., severely wound- 
ed at Piedmont, June 5, 1864, died at Annapolis, Md., March 28, 1865, 
aged 57. (2 y. 8 m.) 

Nelson C. Thompson, operative, aged 21, 18th C. V., died June 30, 
1863, of wounds received at Winchester. (11 m.) 

Eugene Tilden, enlisted in 1st Conn. Artillery, March 20, 1862, served 
through the Peninsula campaign, was discharged on account of disability 
in January, 1863, returned home, and died at his father's, April 23, 
aged 20. 

Edward F. Tisdale, aged 15, enlisted Nov., 1861, 9th C. V. ; discharged 
the next October on account of disability; enlisted in January, 1864, in 
1st Conn. Cavalry ; was captured after his horse had been shot under him, 
and died at Andersonville, Sept. 23, 1864, aged 18. 

Richard Tomlinson, mechanic, aged 40, 26th C. V. Served till the 
regiment was mustered out, but died soon after reaching home, of disease 
contracted in the service. 

James Torrance, aged 20, sergeant in the 3d C. V., and also in the 13th, 
killed in a charge at Port Hudson, May 24, 1863. He was a young man 
of distinguislied bravery and moral worth, a native of Scotland, and 
brother of David Torrance, Colonel of the 29th (colored) regiment. 

* The Norwich Light Infiintry is a volunteer company of home guards, organized 
Feb. 17, 1862, consisting at first of 45 men, but increased to 60, S. R. Pariin, Captain. 
The company was accepted by the State as the nucleus of the 3d Regiment of State 
Militia, and Capt. Tarlin commissioned by the Governor. The presence of this com- 
pany has given additional interest to the mournful observances of many a soldier's 
funeral. 

44 



690 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

William IT. Town, of Greeneville, mechanic, aged 29, 18tli C. V., died 
in hospital at Sandy Hook, Md., March 28, 1864. (1 y. 8 m.) 

Joseph A. Tracy, clerk, aged 18, enlisted as musician 18th C. V., 
wounded at Snicker's Ferry, July 18, 1864, and died in hospital at Sandy 
Hook, Md., Aug. 7, having been in the service two years to a day. 

John F. Treadway, corporal 1st Conn. Cavalry, son of F. W. Treadway, 
of Norwich City. He enlisted at New Haven, Jan. 4, 1864, and died in 
captivity at Andersonville, Aug. 3. 

Moses Tyler, aged 19, 14th C. V., captured at Morton's Ford, Feb. 7, 
and died in prison at Richmond, June 27, 1864. (1 y. 11 m.) 

Erastus Vergason, farmer, aged 27, 10th C. V., killed at Roanoke 
Island, Feb. 8, 1862. (4 m.) 

Ferdinand Volhier, carpenter, aged 36, 6th C. V., died Oct. 21, 1862. 
(13^ m.) 

Marvin Wait, son of John T. Wait, Esq., and when the war com- 
menced, a student in Union College, enlisted in the 8th C. V., Oct. 5, 
1861. He was soon promoted to a Lieutenancy, and detached for service 
on the Signal Corps, in which capacity he was on duty in Burnside's flag- 
ship at the taking of Roanoke Island, and with General Parke at Fort 
Macon. 

In the reduction of Fort Macon, April 26, 1862, signals were used 
with such complete success as to afford a vivid illustration of the value of 
a system of signs in certain contingencies of war. 

Lieut. Andrews, of the 9th N. Y. V., and Lieut. Wait, occupied a sta- 
tion from which, by the aid of glasses, the movements of the enemy could 
be distinguished, and by signals from these officers the fire from the Union 
batteries was directed, rectified, and rendered accurate, with such effect 
that the fortress was soon surrendered.* Messrs. Andrews and Wait were 
highly commended for their service on this occasion. Subsequently, by 
order of Col. Myer, chief officer of the Signal Department, a Signal Bat- 
tle Flag, awarded to Lieut. Wait for gallantry and efficient service at 
Fort Macon, was sent to his father. 

Lieut. Wait rejoined his regiment at Fredericksburg, and at Antietam 
led his company in the gallant charge over the river upon the fortified 
posts at Sharpsburg. Here the advancing troops were outflanked and ex- 
posed to a destructive cross-fire of cannon and musketry. The first brig- 
ade was soon swept away ; the second, under Gen. Harland, to which the 
8th Connecticut was attached, advanced to the rescue, but after fearful 
slaughter, was obliged also to retreat. 

" Lieut. Wait fell at his post while urging on his men into that terrible 
storm of shot and shell." 

* " After 12, M., every shot fired from our batteries, fell in or on the fort." At 4, 
P. M., the white flag appeared. — [Report of Lt. Andrews to the signal officer.] 



HISTORY OF NORWICH. 691 

"Just before he was wounded, he was seen closing up the ranks of his 
company and dressing them in line, as deliberately as though on dress 
parade." 

Such is the testimony of his comrades who were with him in that terri- 
ble fight. Severely wounded and led to the rear, the fire from an advanc- 
ing body of the enemy enfiladed the spot where he lay, and gave him his 
death wound. 

Lieut. Wait wanted four months of being twenty years of age. He 
was an only son, and the centre of many fond anticipations. His coolness 
and self-possession in the midst of battle were remarkable in one so young. 
An officer to whose command he was temporarily attached while on the 
North Carolina coast, said of him, " I had the opportunity of seeing Lieut. 
"Wait under three most galling fires of the enemy, and when others older, 
both in years and time of service, were shrinking, he stood to his post 
like a veteran." General Harland commended him, not only for bravery 
and honor, but for the earnestness and zeal with which he labored to pre- 
pare himself for his various duties as a member of the Signal Corps and 
as a line officer. 

The funeral services were held at the 1st Congregational Church. 
Governor Buckingham, the Mayor and Common Council of the city, the 
field and line officers of the 26th regiment, the Norwich Light Infantry, 
and a great assemblage of citizens were in attendance.* 

Frederick S. Ward, aged 18, corporal 14th C. V., left mortally wounded 
on the field of battle at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862, sending by one of 
his comrades a last message of love and consolation to friends at home. 
This young man enlisted from Saybrook, and is credited on the quota of 
that town, but was a son of John B. Ward, late Treasurer of the Chelsea 
Savings Bank, Norwich. 

Georfje W. Ward, organist and music teacher, aged 26, 18th C. V. Ho 
was taken prisoner at Winchester, and confined successively at Bell Isle, 
Danville, and Andersonville, at which last station he died, Feb. 26, 1865, 
aged 29. His manly fortitude and genial temperament long sustained 
him, but continued hunger, confinement, and ill usage at length brought 
him to the grave, after he had been 21 months a prisoner. He had fine 
musical talents, was a steadfast patriot, and had many Avarm personal 
friends. 

Patrick Welden, aged 34, sergeant 9th C. V., died at New Orleans, 
Aug. 14, 1862. (10 m.) 

* The Portrait of Lieut. Wait appears in tliis work. He was the first commissioned 
officer from Norwich that fell in support of the Union cause. lie had displayed signal 
ability and heroism for one so young and unaccustomed to military duty, and we have 
therefore given a more extended account of his short but meritorious service. 



692 HISTORY OF NORWICH. 

^ Frank White, carpenter, aged 28, 6th C. V., missing at Fort Wagner, 
July 18, 1863, and supposed killed. (1 y. 10 m.) 

Daniel Wilbur, 18th C. V., accidentally shot while on guard duty, 
at Fort Howard, Md., January 5, 1863, aged 19. Interred at Norwich. 
(6 m.) 

Ja7nes Williams, of the Jackson Guards, Capt. Maguire, 2d N. Y. Ar- 
tillery, died in camp, at Alexandria, of typhoid fever, in Feb., 1862. He 
was an old resident of Norwich, and one of the first who enlisted for the 
war. His remains were brought to Norwich and interred Feb. 1 Gth. 

Joseph Winship, clerk, aged 21, 18th C. V. He was left at Winchester 
after the battle of June 16, 1863, to look after the sick and wounded; was 
taken prisoner, sent to Richmond ; transferred to Andersonville, Ga., and 
there died, April 5, 1864, aged 23 years and 6 months. He was an only 
child, and his death left the home of his parents desolate. 

John W. Wood, operative, aged 23, 11th C. V., died from wounds re- 
ceived at Sharpsburg, Sept., 1862. (9 m.) 

Henry P. Tarrington, aged 25, 14th C. V., died of wounds received at 
Antietam, Sept. 21, 1862. (3^ m.) 

COLOBED SOLDIERS. 

Job A. Davis, 29th C. V., enlisted Jan. 2, 1864, died in October, 1865. 
Funeral services at the Eureka Lodge Room of Colored Free Masons, and 
the remains taken to Jewett City for interment. 

James Gillson, 31st U. S. C. T., mustered Jan. 22, and died June 5, 
1864. 

Chester H. Hallam, 24th R. I. Artillery, mustered July 18, 1863, died 
May 4, 1864.* 



The remains of nine Norwich soldiers, who died in dreary captivity, at 
Andersonville, Ga., were recovered and brought home in January, 1866. 
These were 

Edward Blomley, Sylvanus Downer, Edwai'd F. Tisdale, 

Henry F. Champlin, Wm. G. Hayward, Geo. W. Ward, 

William Davis, James S. McDavid, J. H. Winship. 

The city authorities awarded to them a public funeral and a burial spot 
in Yantic Cemetery. The commemorative services were held in Breed 
Hall. The coffins, placed on a funeral car and covered with the American 

* These were the only victims of the war, among the colored soldiers of the town, 
whose names the author has ascertained. Probably others should be added to the list. 



HISTORY OP NORWICH. 693 

flag, were borne in solemn procession, by friends and citizens, societies and 
soldiery, to the place prepared for their reception. 

The number of fatherless children in town, made such by the war, is 
ninety-three. Some of them bear the names of Banney, Bresnahen, Col- 
lins, Gleason, Mc Garry, McNamara, Munroe, O'Donnell, and Sanders, 
showing that nine more names, at least, should be added to the foregoing 
list of the war's victims. 



NOTE. 

In reviewing this work, as the last pages go to press, a few passages 
are observed that belong to the class of Errata — not printer's errors, but 
mistakes inadvertently made by the writer. 

Such are the two following, which happily it is not too late to acknowl- 
edge and amend. P. 77, 18th line from the top, erase the sentence : " now 
deposited in the archives of the Bible Society." This is an error, the 
venerable book referred to being still in the possession of the Lathrop 
family. P. 527, 3d line from the bottom, the date of the Sabbath School 
should be 1816, and the place where it was first kept, the brick school- 
house. 

The Memoir of Mrs. Harriet "Winslow shows that the Sabbath School 
of the First Society had an interesting and auspicious commencement. 
Miss H. W. Lathrop, (afterward Mrs. Winslow, of the Cingalese Mission,) 
during a visit to New York, in March, 1816, witnessed the operation of 
the Sunday School institution in that city, and came home with the fire 
in her heart, which she spread among her friends and neighbors, and in 
the coux'se of a few weeks, a prosperous school of the same kind was in 
operation in this Society. 

Miss Lathrop and her friend. Miss M. Coit, were the first teachers. 
They began with a class of seven ; on the 2.3d of June, they rejoiced over 
" two new scholars," and before the close of July, the whole number that 
had been gathered in was forty-seven. An interesting feature of the 
school was a class of colored women, under the teaching of Miss 
Thomas. 

This school, and the one at the Landing, begun the previous year, had 
a common origin, — G. L. Perkins, and his associates in the work at 
Chelsea, having caught the inspiration, as Miss Lathrop did afterward, by 
visiting the Bethune Sunday Schools in New York. There was only this 
difference — in Mr. Mitchell's Society the first movers were young men, in 
that of Dr. Strong, young women. 



APPEE^DIX. 



In the foregoing work, (p. 585,) some account is given of the Uncas Monument 
erected in the old Indian Cemetery, in 1842. The expense of this monument was 
borne by the ladies of Norwich. It was wrought of Quincy granite, at the Massachu- 
setts State Prison, Charlestown, and coarsely cut, with the simple name of the Sachem 
engraved upon it, in large raised letters — the monument harmonizing in its structure 
with the stern and savage character it commemorated. 

The direction and superintendence of the monument was committed by the ladies 
to G. L. Perkins, Esq., who addressed a circular letter to several distinguished anti- 
quarians, requesting an expression of opinion in regard to the best mode of spelling 
the Sachem's name. Among the answers that he received were the following, which 
may be deemed worthy of preservation, not only on account of the distinction of the 
writers, but as exemplifying in one short name the confusiod and uncertainty that 
exists in Indian orthography. 

Haetfoed, August 17th, 1841. 
G. L. Perkins, Esq., 

Dear Sir: — Your note of the I4th inst., has been in my hands a day or two. I 
have, in the meantime, examined some of the old records and documents in the Sec- 
retary's oiBce. The result is according to your own experience and observation, viz., 
that the name is spelt varioushj. In an original letter from the llev. James Fitch, of 
Norwich, dated in 1G75, it is written Unkas. In the records, it is generally written 
Uncass, sometimes Uncasse, and "sometimes k is used instead of c. These variations 
do not materially affect the sound. The question of spelling is to be settled by those 
who spell. The Indians had nothing to do with it. 

The signature of the original Sachem was the outline of a long necked bird, or some- 
thing like it. Dr. Trumbull and Dr. Holmes both write the name Uncas, and this is 
probably as good authority as there is. The latter especially, is a remarkably correct 
antiquarian. The farther you go back, the greater diversity you will tind. I am sorry 
that I can furnish you with nothing more decisive. 

I am, with great regard. 

Your friend and ob't serv't, 

THOMAS DAY. 



696 APPENDIX. 

New Haven, August 17 th, 1841. 
Dear Sie : 

In reply to your letter of the 14th inst., I should say that the better way for you to 
adopt in engraving the name of the Indian Sachem on the monument, is to follow Dr. 
Trumbull, who uniformly wrote Uncas. Dr. Trumbull is our historian, and his orthog- 
raphy was probably adopted in consequence of the Doctor's finding that to be the 
most common. 

Please to accept the respects of, 

Sir, your ob't serv't, 

NOAH WEBSTER. 
G. L. Perkins, Esq. 



New York, August 21st, 1841. 
Dear Sir : 

Your favor of the 14th was received by me a few days ago, at Saratoga. I embrace 
the earliest moment after my return to the city, to reply ; and yet I can do you but 
small service touching the subject of your inquiry. You appear to be in possession 
of most of the different names which the early writers assigned to Uncas ; and your 
opinion is as good, if not better, than mine, as to the orthography that ought to be 
selected for the proposed monumental inscription. 

You refer to a copy of a deed in which the chieftafin's name is written, On-kos. 
It has been thus printed in several of the early chronicles. 

In the earlier years of his career, after his acquaintance with the English Colonists 
he was sometimes called Poquim, or Poquiam, as well as Uncas. There were several 
ways of spelling that first name ; and I have now before me, in print, these variations, 
viz. : Poquin, Poquim, Poquime, Poquiam, Poquoiam. There is extant a document, or 
treaty, executed jointly by Uncas and Miantonomoh, on the 2d of September, 1638, to 
which the signature of the Mohegan Chief was affixed thus : — "Poquiam, alias 
Unkas." This last mode of spelling it — Unkas — was adopted by Gookin, and also by 
the Rev. Mr. Fitch, the first minister in Norwich, as you may see by a letter from Mr. 
Pitch to General Gookin, contained in vol. I, Mass. Historical Coll. 

Hubbard, who, as you know, wrote very early, spells it Uncas ; so also does Cotton 
Mather in the Magnalia Christi. 

This orthography has been followed by all, or nearly all, the later authors, Trum- 
bull, Bancroft, and others. 

You refer to the variations of the orthography found among the early writers, histo- 
rians, journalists, &c., &c., among whom you particularize Winthrop, as having writ- 
ten the name differently at difi'crent times. Such, undoubtedly, was the fact in all the 
Colonies. The Indians themselves had no written language ; and the early writers, 
having no guides, noted down the names as best they could, from the sounds given by 
Indian articulation. The names, moreover, were often so long, so crooked, and so 
uncouth, that the writers were often puzzlffrt at one time to remember how they had 
written them at another. Hence the almost inextricable confusion in the matter of 
spelling Indian names, both of persons and places. In this State, we are worse off 
than you are in New England, since we have to contend with the outlandish orthogra- 
phy manufactured by the Dutch, the French, and the English ! 



APPENDIX. 697 

But I am writing quite too much. "Were it in my power to obliterate all the written 
and printed records in which the name of Uncas appears, and create a simple orthog- 
raphy for it, I think I should write it On-kos. To my eye and ear, it looks and 
sounds like better Indian when written thus. 

But under existing circumstances, I should accept the common orthography, and 
engrave it on the monument Uncas. 

Thus it is written in all our modern, and our best histories, and thus it will descend 
to posterity. I think it best, therefore, that the proposed inscription should conform 
to general usage. 

I am. Sir, 

Very truly yours, 

WILLIAM L. STONE. 
G. L. Perkins, Esq. 



The letter from Mr. Fitch to General Gookin, referred to by Col. Stone, was written 
from Norwich, Nov. 20, 1674, and contains the following interesting passage: 

" Since God hath called me to labour in this work among the Indians near to me, 
where indeed are the most considerable number of any in this colony, the first of my 
time was spent upon the Indians at Moheek [Mohegan] where Unkas and his son and 
Wanuho are sacliems. These at first carried it teachably and tractably ; until at length 
the sachems did discern that religion would not consist with a mere receiving of the 
word ; and that practical religion will throw down their heathenish idols, and tho 
sachems' tyrannical monarciiy, and then the sachems did not only go away but drew 
off their people, some by flatteries and others by threatenings ; and they would not 
suffer them to give so much as an outward attendance to the ministry of the word of 
God. But at this time some few did show a willingness to attend. Therefore I begaa 
meetings with them about one year and a half since." 

" And he that is chief among them, whose name is Weebax, hath learned so much 
that he is willing and able in some degree to be helpful in teaching and prayer to the 
others, on the Lord's day ; and this Weebax is of such a blameless conversation that 
his worst enemies and haters of religion cannot but speak well of his conversation ; 
and the same may be said concerning another, whose name is Tuhamon. Tiie number 
of these Indians is now increased to above thuty." 



II:TDEX OF l^AMES. 



Abbott, 378, 98 ; 535, 656, 67, 73. 
Abel, (Abell.) 66, 83, 4; 101, 2, 

67, 68, 74, 88, 91, 6 ; 205, 9, 36, 

78, 81, 7 ; 304, 6 ; 429, 38 1 606, 

34. 
Adams, 139, 51, 70 ; 259, 376, 420, 

513, 19, 37, 46, 82, 3 ; 614, 33, 

48. 
Adgate, 53, 60, 1, 4, 8, 9 ; 73, 4 ; 

84-6; 125,6,9,35,51,5,6,77, 

93 ; 203, 13, 14, 19, 74, 81, 8 ; 

383, 440, 50G, 33. 
Aiken, 679. 
Aitcheson, 438, 592. 
Alden, 461. 
V Allen, 222. 40, 51 ; 364, 428, 46 ; 

515, 21, 44, 8, 64 ; 622, 38, 44, 

71, 2. 
AUerton, 222. 
Allyn, 58. 9 ; 61, 6 ; 83, 7, 8 ; 114, 

34. 5,56, 7, 74; 207,47,60,62; 

439, 83 ; 038, 80. 
Almy, 642. 

Amei, (Eanie3,)162, 222, 45 | 488. 
Amherst, Gen., 313. 
Amos, 86, 97, 244, 54. 
Andrews, (Anaross,) 166, 96 ;222, 

3, 41, 3 ; 651, 90. 
Andross, Sir Edmund, 167, 261. 
Angel, 227, 60. 
Apthorp, 371. 
Arms, 150, 528, 60, 84, 91, 2; 

671, 4. 
Armstrong. 136, 223, 35; 304, 

429, 606, 614, 22. 
Arnold, 69. <*3, 207. 23, 76 ; 306, 

8,27; 4("j, 7, 9, 15. 
Asbury, GO'i. 
Aspinwall, 639. 
Au.'itin, 435, 6, 7, 67, 9, 89 ; 543, 

60; 604. 
Avery, 41, 5 : 89, 110, 12, 57 ; 204, 

23,36,54, 79; 329, 431, 4, 9; 

492, 604, 12, 86; 661, 80. 
Ayer, (Ayers,) 234, 44 ; 309, 445, 

538. 

Backus, 21, 63, 61, 2, 4, 6 ; 73, 4 ; 
84-86, 9 ; 94, 7 ; 120, 5. 6, 32, 
34-8, 43, 57-62, 5, 8 ; 204, 35, 
58, 62, 72, 4, 5, 81, 5-7, 91, 2, 
6 ; 305, 7, lO, 16, 19, 20-5, 38, 
47, 9, 69, 75, 83, 6, 9, 98 ; 4(i3, 
16, 23, 40, 60-4, 71, 9,fc2 ; 507, 
11, 35, y, 64,60, 76; 606, 12,. 
14, 15, 40, 2, 50. 

Bacon, 223, 59 ; 593, 622. 

Badger, 223, 32. 

Bailey, (Bayley,) 158, 515. 

Baird, 661. 



Baker, 159, 223, 615, 80. 
Baldwin, (Balding,) 61, 6; 74, 

83-5; 128, 32, 62, 61-4. 72; 

269, 79, 81 ; 348, 80 ; 429, 38, 

95 ; 605, 43, 5, 58 ; 633. 
Ballou, 604. 
Bangs, 236. 
Banks, 467, 667, 71, 9. 
Banney, 693. 
Baral, 607. 
Barber, 500. 
Bard, 595, 647. 
Baret, 180, 1,6. 
Barker, 163, 359, 424, 63, 84, 94, 

8; 634,6. 
Barlow, 78, 415. 
Barnes, (Barns,) 546, 614, 41. 
Barre, 374, 421. 
Barrel!, 637, 63; 612. 
Barret, (Barrett,) 130, 224, 83, 9 j 

323 
Barstow, 224. 
Barton, 224. 
Bartow, 620. 
Batchelder, 446. 
Batcheler, 232. 
Bates, 224, 344. 
Baxter, 440, 610. 
Bayard, 371. 
Beardsley, 463. 
Beatty, 602, 7. 
Beaumont, 505. 
Beckwith, 167, 680. 
Belcher, 245. 

Beldcn, (Belding,) 178, 224. 
Bell, 224, 9 ; 634. 
Bellamy, 161, 470, 516, 54 ; 626. 
Bellasiie, 613, 14. 
Benedict, 441, 528. 
Benjamin, 244, 5 ; 483, 494-7 ; 

583. 
Bentley, 556, 602, 5, 41, 9, 61, 

75. 
Berry, 489, 661, 74, 80. 
Best, 681. 
Bill, 305, 11, 50, 88, 9, 93 ; 403, 

63, 4, 82, 6, 93, 8, 9 ; 646, 76 ; 

660. 
Billings, 245, 310, 59 ; 404, 7, 93, 

4, 7 ; 500, 35, 42, 65. 
Bingham, 62, 5 ; 83, 4, 6 ; 136, 

68, 9, 62-0 ; 203, 68, 71, 9, 81, 

99. 
Bingley, 483, 562. 
Birchard, 53, 61, 6 ; 73, 4 ; 82, 

5, 7, 92 ; 128, 33-6, 51, 61, 6, 
7, 72. 9, 87;206, 31, 8, 62, 8l! 
429, 37, 51 ; 594. 

Birge, 661, 7, 8, 73, 4, 7, 9. 
Biron, duke de, 394. 



Bishop, 133, 257, 8, 60 ; 344, 

439. 
Bissell, 153, 375, 80. 
Black, 681. 
Blake, 196, 661. 
Blackman, 505. 
Blackmore, 224. 
Blackstone, (549. 
Blinman, 171, 215. 
Bliss, 63, 61, 5, 8 ; 73, 4 ; 86, 99 ; 

132, 69. 67, 8 ; 200, 3, 10, 19, 

40; 278, 9, 81 ; 308, 33, 48; 

449, 62 ; 529, 84 ; 621, 32. 
Blomley, 672, 81, 92. 
Blosopolis, 675. 
Blunt, ai4. 
Blythe, 272. 

Boardman, 398, 582, 654. 
Bolles. 292, 538, 606. 
Bolman, 681. 

Bond, 655, 7, 77, 91 ; 645, 74. 
Boorman, 613, 16. 
Borden, 206. 
Boswell, (Buswell,) 252,312, 467, 

82, 8, 91, 6, 7 i 538, 53 ; 636. 
Botler, 52. 
Bottomly. 681. 
Bourne, 169. 206, 24. 
Bowers, 63, 61, 6 ; 86, 136, 68. 
Boyer, 626. 
Bradford, 62 4 ; 84, 6 ; 91, 128, 

32, 9, 53, 69, 70, 99 ; 201, 6, 44, 

51. 67, 84. 
Bradley, 670, 81. 
Bradstreet, 143. 7. 
Bniinerd. 148, 355. 
Braniin, 535. 
Branch, 245, 54. 
Bmnd, 623, 71. 
Breed, 310, 11, 12, 48, 50, 2 ; 367, 

78, 98 ; 443, 9, 64, 7, 9 ; 620, 

7, 38, 69, 80 ; 625-9, 40, 7-50, 

63,91. 
Brennan, 674. 
Bre3nahen,693. 
Brewer, 4S3, 5.37, C05. 80, 40, 7. 
Brewster, 41, 4-6 ; 67, 9 ; 84, 6, 

9 : 96. 106. 34, 6, 51, 69, 74, 82 ; 

211-13, 31, 45, 8, 53,4; 382, 

403, 9S; 501, 39, 66, 86, 92; 

645, 50-2. 
Brimmer, 310. 
Brockwav, 198. 
Bromlev;499, 538, 84, 99 ; 600, 

42, 67'-9, 72, 8. 
Brooks, 542, 681. 
Brown, 22, 107, 47, 86 ; 224, 46, 

69 ; 325, 84 ; 458, 82, 9 ; 600, 

1, 12, 13, 39 : 617, S>i, 46, 81, 2. 
Browne, 830, 405, 629. 



700 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Brownell. 457. 

Bruen, 74, 87, 196. 

Buchanan, 631, 54. 

Buckingham, 54, 149, 77; 44(5, 
549,59, 77. 88; 630, 1, 40, 1, 
54,6,77,91. 

Buddington, 407. 

Bulklev, 111. 

Bull, 63, 140, 70. 

Bunker, 566. 

Burbeck, 240. 

Burdick, 549, 662, 82. 

Burgess, 637. 

Burlev, 224. 

Burnett, 682. 

Burnham, 98, 207, 59 ; 359, 76 ; 
443, 502, 36, 45 ; 614, 26. 

Burpee, 671. 

Burr, Aaron, 516. 

Burrows, 599. 

Bush, 558. 

Bushnell, 53, 68, 9 ; 83, 4, 6 
93-5 ; 101, 25, 33, 51, 5, 86, 8 
90, 3 ; 210, 1,3-15,22,4, 40, 51 
8, 63-7, 71-3 ; 274, 7-9, 81, 6-8 
96 ; 303-7, 58, 84 ; 429, 40, 52 
3. 8, 60, 2, 81 ; 546, 7, 51, 94 
608, 3i, 74. 

Butler, 384-6, 494, 504, 7, 15 ; 
636,65,7. 

Butterfield, 51. 

Butts, 344. 

Cabot, 542. 

Cady, 246. 

Caldwell, 240. 

Caliph, 613. 

Calkins, (Caulkins,) 61. 6 ; 73, 4 ; 

83, 4, 6 ; 99, 120, 32,' 62, 7, 8 ; 

171-3, 6, 9, 87, 99 ; 211, 38, 44, 

51, 81, 8 ; 309, 19, 21, 2. 
Campbell. 403. 
Oapron, 225, 398, 425, 62, 7. 
Carew, 19G. 225, 378, 84, 98 ; 400, 

63; 611, '20; 630,6. 
Carleton, 668, 9. 
:.irney. 682. 
Carpenter, 225 J 84; 511, 34, 04, 

93: 661.73. 
Carrier, 230, 52. 
Carroll, 621, 47, 85. 
Carter, 226. 418. 
Carver, 682. 
Cary. 246, 501, 50. 
Case, 225, 75, 97 ; 560, 97; 658, 

74, 8, 82. 
Cass, 585. 
Cates, 136. 
Cathcart, 225. 
Challenge, 2'9. 3. 
Champion, 233. 
Chaniplin, 682, 93. 
Chapm.an. 53, 92, 177, 225, 321, 

438, 503. 5, 6 t 628, 82. 
Chappell, 225, GS2-. . 
Charles, 157, 8 ; 521. 
Charltou, 560. 
Chase, 469. 
Chastellux. 518. 
Chattield, 662. 
Cheever, 449. 
Cheney, 464, 601. 
Cherry, 591. 

ChesebrouKh, 89, 161.312. 
Chester, 334, 58 ; 410, 97 ; 588, 

656-8, 81. 
Child, .559. 6.32. 
Chilton, 204. 
Choate, 241. 
Chrisiie, 455. 
Christophers, 193. 
Church, 111, 387. 
Clark, 53, 177, 84 ; 246, 53, 78, 



83 ; 347, 452, 6, 82, 92, 7 ; 538, 
62,96; 601. 

Clay, 631. 

Clement, 311, 12 ; 620. 

Cleveland, 226, 363, 77, 84, 96 ; 
460, 510, 20, 1, 44, 52, 60, 4. 

Chft, 584, 644. 

Clinton, 631. 

Cogswell, 337, 410. 648. 

Coit, 46, 69, 127, 38 ; 312, 13, 27, 
8, 32, 48 ; 380, 1, 98 ; 403, 4, 
6, 8, 11, 61, 3, 4, 75, 9 ; 482, 4, 
6, 8, 92. 8 ; 508, 12, 20-2, 36, 
43, 6 ; 548, 52, 3, 7, 9, 67, 79 ; 
609, 23, 6, 37^0, 43, 6, 9, 63, 6, 
8,93. 

Colburne, 310, 414. 

Cole, 226, 622. 

Collier, 372. 

ColUns, 693. 

Colt, 661. 

Colton, 657. 

Comstock, 167, 216, 651. 

Conklin, 583. 

Converse, 498, 614, 21. 

Cook, (Cooke.) 138, 246, 53, 72 ; 
407. 93, 5, 7 ; 675. 

Cooley, 496, 8 ; 583,96. 

Coolidge, 225. 

Copely, ,521. 

Copp, 227. 

Corbett, 682. 

Corcoran, 661. 

Corning, 246, 392, 448, 632. 

Cortland, 268. 

Cotterei, 226. 

Cowles, 668. 

C.ixe, 521, 607. 

Coy. 254, 7, 8. 

Crane, 73, 136, 58, 77 ; 226. 

Crary, 898. 

Crawford, 682. 

Crosby, 259, 558, 671. 

Cro»?, 136, 226. 

Crocker, 226, 463, 504, 614, 82. 

Oryer, 437. 

Cullen, 582. 

CuUum, 226. 

Culvfr, fColver,) 110, 226, 91, 2 ; 
314, 48, 9 ; 455. 8, 9, 77, 82, 5, 
92 ; 500, 39, 40, 66, 9 ; 670, 

Culvers well, 226. 
Curtice, 460. 
Cushman, 683. 

T»,abol!, 543. 

l^aggett. 419. 

Dana, f.'jo, 7. 

Danforth, 246, 575. 

D.^uiels,a58, 666, 7. 

Darby, 226. 

Darrow, 371, 598, 607. 

Dart, 212. 

Davenport. 52, 279. ,316. 

Davis, 226, 91. 2 ; 350, 668, 83, 

92. 
Davison, 246, 407, 55, 8. 62 ; 562, 

8 ; 602, 8. 
Day, 229. 41 ; 404, 537, 86. 
Dayues, (Deans,) 227. 
Dean, 311, 460, 2, 3, 4. 
Doblois, 414. 
Decatur, 157. 
Decker, 227. 
Delauy, 683. 
Delanoy, 6,59. 
Deming, 400. 
Dennison, 89, 110, 12, 47, 8, 90 ; 

227,32-4,65,86; 810, 18, 21, 

86; 433, 5', 94; 504, 62; 601, 

50. 
Denslow, 113. 



Dennis, 227, 378, 464, 7 ; 662, 3, 

81. 
DePeyster, 616. 
Deshon, 288, 9 ; 402. 
Destouches, 458, 535. 
Devereux, 542. 

Devotion, 616, 95 ; 640, 6, 8, 50. 
DeWitt, 310, 48, 78, 88, 91, 8 ; 

400, 67 ; 563, 94 ; 639, 50. 
DeWolfe, 207. 
Dickinson, 190, 555, 7, 92. 
Dillon, ,394. 
Dimmock, 556. 

Doane, 21(, 483, 9 ; 562, 6, 78. 
Dodge, 521, 44 ; 612, 16, 40. 
Donelson, 585. 
Dorey, 683. 
Dorr, 379, 80. 
Douglas, 417. 
Dow, 603. 
Dowd, 227. 

Downer, 246, 79 ; 683, 92. 
Downing, 678. 
Downs, 246, 53 ; 575. 
Driesbach, 22. 
Dugan, 683. 
Dumont, 398. 
Duneffiu, 273. 
Dunke, 63. 
Dutton, 671. 
Dunham, 485, 535, 81, 96; 630, 

46. 
Durkie, 358. 61, 5, 7, 76, 7, 81, 2 ; 

391, 421, 94 ; 504, 636. 
Dwight, 161. 483, 530, 78 ; 632. 
Dyer, 637, 42. 

Eaton, 637. 

Edgecomb, 227, 8. ^, 

Edgerion. 53, 61. ; 73, 4 ; 83-5 ; 

132, 73, 98 ; 275, 81 ; 347, 87 ; 

427, 9, 30 ; 534, 8, 62, 96 ; 683. 
Edmonds, 97. 

Edwards, 160, 315, 16 ; 585, 678. 
Eell,?, 483, 8 ; 512, 20 ; 609. 
Elderkin, 60, 8 : 72, 3 ; 85, 96, 

119, 20, 0. 8; 32, 67, 78, ; 209, 

15, 10, 28, SOj'fiS. 81,3, 7 ; 303, 

4, 44 ; 400, 517. 75. 
Eldridge, .501. 

Elliott, 117, 63, 80 : 320, 568. 
Ellis, o7, 102, 378, bl ; 424, 5, 30, 

1, ii9 ; 590. 
Elmore, 113. 
Elsingham, 102. 
Elting. 446, 615. 
Ely, 469, 601, 8, 9, 70. 
Emory, 126. 
Emmons, 577. 
England, Lt. Col., 664. 
Ellsworth, 241. 
Everest, 528. 
Everit, 636. 

Fairbanks, 228. 

Fairfax Sir Thomas, 140. 

Fales, 228, 72. 

F.anning, 310, 11, 84, 98 ; 402, 

25, 49, 78, 80, 1, 2, 92 ; 612, 33, 

4, 44, 53, 64, 71 ; 683. 
Fargo, 228, 304. 
Farley, 267. 
Farnsworth, 637, 72. 
Faulkner, 458, 582, 3. 
Fen wick, 51-3, 141. 
Ferry, 666. 
Fessenden, 558. 
Field, 228. 
Filburne, 683. 
Fillmore, 224, 9, 30, 80 ; 463, 539, 

88 ; 624, 35, 42, 54. 
Fisk, 603. 
Fisher, 667. 



INDEX OP NAMES. 



701 



Fitch, 20, 1, 8 ; 52-6 ; 60-4, 9 ; 
74. 6 ; 81, 3-S, 8, 9 ; 92, 5-9 ; 
104-6, 9-11, 13-28, 34-9, 42-55, 
62, 6, 70, 6. 93 ; 207, 11, 40-8, 
53-60. 5, 81, 7-8, 99 ; 303, 5, 
10-13, 37, 54, 61, 6, 7,'86, 98 ; 
4a5, 7, 8, 48, 59, 60, 2, 4, 7, 71, 
9, 82, 9, 90, 2 ; 505, 8. 75, 86, 
90, 6, 17, 18. 38, 51, 60 ; 617, 
27. 37, 9. 

Flagg, 457. 

Flint, 125, 6 : 367. 

Foote. 201, 507, 55. 

Forbes, 83, 174, 85 ; 202, 10, 45, 
7, 51, 4, 8. 

Ford, 230, 667, 78, 83. 

Forsyth, (Forsey.) 280, 1. 

Forstner. 683. 

Fosdick, 372. 

Foster, 380, 583, 630, 2, 3, 63, 77. 

Fowler, 230. 

Fos, 230, 78 ; 683. 

Francis, 247, 52, 3 ; 668. 

Frasier, 2.3<\ 

Freeman, 245, 7 ; 3G0, 479, 87, 
98, 9 ; 53ij 

Fremont, J. C, 631, 5-1, 72. 

French, 230, 4S1. 

Frisby, 471. 539. 

FuUer, 280, 322, 460, 594, 637, 
67. 

Gage, Gen., 377- 

Gager, 62, 6 ; 74, 83, 1.30, 1, 56, 

74, 5, 85 ; 247, 281, 329, 595, 

678. 
Gale, .344, 81, 98 : 477, 678. 
Gallop, 108. 40, 75 ; 647, 71. 
Galloway, 4.52. 
Gardiner, 51, 227. 
Gardner. ,583. 
Gaskell, 684. 
Gates, 247, 92 ; 344. 
Gavitt, 538, 90, 9. 
Gaylord. 216, 30, 72. 
fl„.... Mjeares,) 156, 247, 534. 
George, 494. 
Gerard, Count de, 405. 
Getty. Gen . 004. 
Gibbons, 230. 

Giddings, 247, 53 ; 349, 448. 
Giflford, 59, 62. 3 : 83. 6 ; 130, 6, 

72. 5, 6, 92 ;■ 277, 81, 7. 
Gilbert, 482, 95-9 : 565, 83. 
Qillson, 438, 692. 
Gilman, 26. 38. 68, 263, 538, 48, 

57, 64, 88, 91 ; 609-13, 627, 44, 

7,50. 
Gilmore, 567, C>f;3. 
Gleason, 447. 6t)3. 
Glover, 96, 248, 53 ; 487, 96 ; 579, 

639. 
Goddard, 228. 371, 443, 67. 92 ; 

5-35. 45, 64, 'J5 : 611, 12, 18, 26, 

31, 2. 41, 65, 8, 74, 84. 
Goodell. 384, 425, 606. 
Goodhue, 584, 6Jl. 
Goodrich. 201. 541. 
Gookin, 117, 230, 1 ; 451. 
Gordon, 596, 040. 
Gortou, 32, 231. 
Gould. 230. 
Gove, 175, 230. 
Grace, 595- 

Graves. 4.53. 600. 1, 85. 
Gray, 289, 564. 642. 
Green, 159, 2.30', 301, 4, 74-6 : 506. 
Greene, 26, 312. 79 ; 621, 37, 49, 

50, 2, 89 ; 611, 12, 13, 18, 19, 

28, .30, 47. 
Greenman, 623 
Gri^non. 283. .3. 8, 9. 
Griffln, 518, 607. 



Griffith, 542. 

Grist, 230, 4.51, 2, 4, 8. 

Griswold, 53, 61, 6 ; 73, 4 ; 84-6 ; 
92, 9 ; 132, 51, 60, 76-8, 87, 0, 
95 ; 202, 26, 81, 7 ; 321, 3, 4, 
78, 83 ; 424, 5 ; 505, 18, 19, 26, 
9 46 53. 

Gro'verJ 231, 80; 323, 4; 473, 
541. 

Grosvenor, 422. 

Gulliver, 236, 549, 50, 9, 60, 84 ; 
644. 

Ilaggitt, 259. 

Ilaile, 6.37. 

Uakes. 668, 9. 

Uale, 411, 41, 2 ; 545, 668, 79. 

Hall, 231, 67 ; 452, 89. 

Hallam, 411, 551, 626, 92. 

Ualsey, 283, 348, 81 ; 406, 25 ; 

539 
Hamilton, 231, 79 ; 458, 90 ; 670, 

84. 
Hammond, 231, 504. f 71? 

Handy, (Hendy,) 62, 5 ; 143, 78, 

216. 
Harding, 138, 325, 403, 4, 5, 63 j 

6.39. 
Hardy, 564. 
Uarland, 22, 372, 512, 608, 56, 8, 

63, 4, 74, 7, 9, 91. 
n.arIowe, 487. 
Hiirrington, 231, 556, 671. 
Harris, 195, 6 ; 232, 3 : 344, 61 : 

495,501,3; 032. 
Harrison, 431, 585. 
Hart, 191, 328, 539, 46 ; 608, 26. 

Hartshorn, 93, 167, 210, 32. 5, 76 ; 

367, 424. 9, 30 ; 506, 7 ; 634. 
Harvey, 448. 
Uarwood, 236. 
Haskell, 248, 448, 544. 92. 
Haskins, (Hoskius,) i:32. 
Hatch, 440, 599. 
Haughton. 91, 577. 
Havens, 500. 
Hawes, 555. 
Hayward. 684. 92. 
Hazard, 5-36. 

Hazen, 232, 44, 99 ; 429, 30, 45. 
Hfttth, 232. 
Hebard, 141, 643. 
Heifer, .578. 

Hempstead, 232, 45, 67, 74, 
Hendrick, 232. 
Herrick, 454, 63 ; 538, 98, 9. 
Hewit, 248. 
Hibbard, 603. 
Hidden, 241, 372. 
Hii^gin.'f, 6ti8. 
Hill, 147, 232, .323, 545. 
Hillard, 248, 407, 48, 91, 3. 
Hincklev. 545, 56. 
Hlscox, 601. 
Hitchcock, 555. 
Hobart, 148. 
Hodge.s. 232. 
Holbrook, 576, 83. 
Holden, 4,52, 5, 8 ; 619. 
Holdridge, 278. 
Holland, 278, 650. 
Hollowav, 197, 230. 
Holm, ,597. 
Holmes, 359. 
Holwell, (iii7, 684. 
Hooker, 123, 43, 9, 51 ; 337, 554, 

7, 77 ; 637. 
Hooper, 621. 
Hopkins, 361, 412. 
Hosmer, 510, 56, % ; (HI. 
llossmondeu, 268. 
Uotham, 565. 



Hough, 93, 1.36, 71, 95 ; 233, 5, 

8,9,59; 321,4-35.1 
House, 046. 
Hovey, 648. 
How, 3.36. 79. 

Howard, 62, 6 ; 86. 108, 79 ; 244. 
Howe, 441,467, 633. 
Howland, 312, 27, 98; 404, 6. 8, 

81-9, 92, 4 ; 538, 44, 53, 95 ; 

6in, 38, 9. 46, 50. 
Hubbard, 33, 48, 160, 312. 28, 36, 

51, 60, 74, 9, 80, 4; 98; 423, 74, 

91 ; 511, 15. 21, m, 6, 49, 50, 1, 

2. 66, 81 ; 612, 13, 19, 28, 49. 
Hudson. 484, 604. 

Hull, 314, 478, 96. 
Hunn, 529. 

Hunt. 391, 4.35, 7 ; 644. 
Iluntiey, 252, 327, 544, 7 ; 626. 
Hunter, 491, 670. 
Huntington, 25, .53, 60-8 : 73, 4 ; 
83, 4-7 ; 96, 101, 20-9, 32-6, ,55, 

7, 9, 63, 5, 9, 70, 4-86 ; 208-6, 
17, 25, 50-4, 60, 2, 72-4, 9-83, 
7,8; 304,5-8, 12,13,21,3,5, 

8, 30, 4, 8, 47. 8. 51, 8, 65-7, 9, 
71-84, 8, 91-8; 402-5, 15-20, 
4-6, 9, 30, 5, 8, 40, 55, 62-5, 71, 
4, 7, 8, 80-94 ; 504, 7, 8, 10-12, 
15-18, 23, 6, 7, 36, 8, 41, 5, 52, 
3,60,3,9,71,8,9,81,6,90-6; 
606, 8, 12-15, 25, 30-2, 4, 9,40, 

3, 6-9, ,50, 2, 3, 74, 84. (This 
name appears on about 180 
pages.) 

Iluntoon, 660, 71. 

Hutchiugs, 592. 

Hutchins, 23:*, 99 ; 306, 684. 

Hutchinson. 233, 874, 5, 9. ~ 

Hutchison, 5,"j1. 

Hvde, 36, 53, 61, 5, 6, 8 ; 73, 84, 
8;91, 101, 32, 6:166,72,86-9, 
95,6; 2iM. 14, 24,.30, 5, S, 45, 
71-81 ; 319. 21, 2, 4, 32, 67, 78, 
83 ; 423, 5. 9, 40, .52, 4. 69 ; 502. 
3, .5, 10, IS. 19, 44, 7.'8, .Vi.&y, 
3, 4,71,93,4; 602,3,12,16,25. 
6, 47. 74, 8. 

Hyers, 500. 

Ingcrsoll, 365, 6; 547. 
Ingrahaiii, 458, 90. 1; 536. 
Lsham. 420. 
Ives, 432, 3. 

Jacob, 217. 

Jacobs, 685. 

Jack.oon, (ien., 535. 

Jack.son, Stonewall, 661, 9. 

Jay, -i05 

Jearson, 288. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 631. 

Jenks, 291. 

Jenner, 427. 

Jennings, 2;i3, 467, 77 ; 600, 58. 

Jop.<on, 327. 

Jesaup, 01)3. 

Jewett, 177. 257, 8 ; 321, 82 : 428 

48, 50 ; .525. 95. 
Johnson, 152, 'ZSH. 313, 81, 2 ; 400, 

29, .54. 8 ; 577, 647, 67, 77, 85. 
Jones, 233, 399. 415, 31 ; 6-1.3, 85. 
Judson, 444, 63, 7-9, 70 ; 567. 

Kane, 672. 

Kcables, 6i;7. 

Kelly, 234, 303, 5, 9, 21 ; 467, 93, 

9 ; 596, 605, 78, 86. 
Kennard. ,528. 
Kennedy, 231. 
Kennely, 685. 
Kerr, 6.S5. 
Key, 372. 



702 



INDEX OF NAMES 



Kimball, 234. 1 

King, 234, 304, 6 ; 406, 7, 9, 46, 

56, 71, 91; 525 33, 6, 44, 5, 

52-4, 7. 
Kingsbury, 234, 382, 424-9, 30 ; 

433, 60 ; 506, 660. 
Kingsley, 661, 71, 2. 
Kinsman, 259. 99 : 367, 506, 8. 
Kinney, 425, 539, 63, 4, 86. 
Kirby, 113. 234. 
Kirtland, (Kirklaud,) 274, 317, 

424, 30, 9-41 ; 503, 8, 90. 
Kn.app, 668, 9. 
Knight, 93, 159, 2.57, 8, 78, 83, 4, 

98 ; 344, 546, 638. 
Knowlton, (Nolten,) 234,41,53. 
Knowles, 234. 6. 
Knox, 414. 

Lacy, 685. 

Ladd, 2.35, 400, 29, 30. 

LaFayette, 393, 4. 

Laird, 685. 

Lamb, 235, 344, 424, 63; 540, 

602. 
Lambert, 242, .59. 
Lancaster, 458. 
Lane, 216. 

Lanman, 307, 11. 12, 14, ; 463, 4, 
71, 82, 4, 8. 92, 7 ; 545, 63, 9, 
96 ; 615, 26, 7 : 631, 40, 6, 76. 
Larrabee, 180, 7; 243, 6, 8, 53; 

375, 647. 
Latham, 281. 

Lathrop,(I.othrop.) 68, 73, 7, 83, 
4,6; 119, 55, 93-9; 207, 11, 
16-21, 41, 57, 68, 74, 81, 7, 97, 
9; 304-8,21, 5-8, 38; 341,4, 
5-9,51,2,9,61.7.8,75,82.3, 
4, 91. 6, 9 ; 406. 9, 12, 13. 23 ; 
424, 9. 35, 9, 44. 60, 3, 70, 1, 
80, 2, 3, 8, 05 : 503, 5, 11-15, 
20-3, 34, 6, 7, 42, 3, 4, 52. 60, 
3, 8, 71, 8, 9, 90. 1. 2, 5 ; 606, 
6-10, 37, 40, 6, 9, 63, 85, 93. 
Latimer, 381 
Lauzun, duke de, 394. 
Law, 278, 537, 06, 7 ; 634. 
Lawier, 666. 

Lawrence, 128, 235,99 ; 344, 439. 
Las, 388- 

Lay, 53, 167,75,86,7. 
Learned, .550, 614, 48, 50, .3. 
Leavenworth, 326. 
Ledlie, 367_. 410, 63. 
Ledyard, 678. , ._ 

Lee, 73, 166. 80 ; 2*5, 381, 444, 57, 
9 ; 537, 88 ; 602, 3, 6, 17. 38 ; 
668, 71, 6. 
Lcete,86. ,^ . 

Leffiingwell, 40-i ; ,'',3. 7 ; hO. 1, 
5, 8; 83-9; 97, 101.2,7, 10,16, 
26, 5, 6, 30, 4, o, S9. 90-2, 8 ; 
203,4,11,14,4.3,4,9,50,3,6, 
62.5. 7. 71, 2, 4, 9-81, 7, 8 ; 
8j5, 10, 21, 8, 32, 8, 41, 8, 61, 
7,71,4,82.3,5,92,6,9: 400, 
22,9 58. 63, 4, 75.7,88,98.9; 
502, 6. 12, 29, 36, 8, 48, 93 ; 
607, 8/ 
Lennerson. 245._ 
Leonard. 444. 673. 
Lester. 3.51, 90 ; -102, 6,63,83.91, 
2, 9; 512, 34, 62-6, 97; 610, 
78. 
Lewis, 457, 619. 
L'Hommedieu, 442, 71, 98 ; t<3Q, 

46, 89, 94, 6. 
Lilly, 668. 79. 
Lincoln, 419^ 607, 54, 77. 
Linds.'iy, 668. 
Lippitt, 449, 564. 
Litell, (Little,) 254, 616. 



Livingston, 284, 436. 

Lloyd, 686. 

Lodema, 635. 

Longbottom, 257, 8 ; 344. 

Loomer, 209, 35. 

Loomis, 427, 615, 86. 

Lord. 60, 73, 155, 67, 84, 7, 92, 8 ; 

235, 45, 74, 7, 87, 8, 90, 3-5 ; 

304, 15-20, 4, 36-8, 59, 84, 92 ; 

406, 16, 23, 7, 45, 59, 61, 2, 4, 

72, 8, 81, 7, 9, 94-8 ; 528, 45, 

78 ; 635. 
Loring, 406, 88, 9, 93 ; 501. 
Loudon, 362. 
Lovett, 259, 346, 400, 46. 
Low, 236, 634. 
Lusk, 674. 

Lyman, 198, 358, 491. -^ 
Lyon, 235, 388. 



Macdonald, 542. 

Madison, 631. 

Maffitt, 603. 

Maginnis, 670. 

Maguii-e, 658, 661, 74, 81, 92. 

Mainer, 248. 

Malbone, 380, 410, 58, 

Mallat, .303. 

Mallory, 600. 

Malotte, 385^ 

Mangier, .597. 

Mann, 292. 

Manning, 281, 526, 63, 84 ; 678, 

86. 
Manough, 244. 
Mansfield, 66, 413, 660, 6 ; 605, 

78. 
! Manwaring, 551. 
Maro, 686. 

I Marsh, 116. 313, 84 ; .514, 6-35. 
1 Marshall, 2.35. 75, 9 ; 429, 504. 
I Martin. 463, 606,86. 
I Marvin. 53, 155, 93 ; 207, 13 ; 388, 
I 99 ; 428, 507, 56, 81 ; 635. 
I Mar yoh.annan, 591, 
' Mason, 20, 2, 8-30, 44, 7, .53-8, 
61-5, 9, 72, 4, 6, 84-90, 2, 6 ; 
106-8 : 1.32, 6, 9-53, 65, 70 ; 200, 
6, 24, .31, 54, 6, 7, 62, 5-70, 81 ; 
523, 88, 9. 
I Mather, 150. 286. 
May, 169, 

I McAllister, 686. ^ „ 

McCall, 382, 91, 9 ; 016, 64, 5, 7, 

86. 
McCartT. 498, 9. 
McClellan. .360, 400, 20 ; 647, 54. 
McClure. ti37. 
McOord. 667, 79, 
McCracken, 686, 
MoOurdy, 397, 9 ; 552,3 ; 640, 4. 
McD.avid, 686, 92. 
; McEwen, 431, 
' McGarrv, 693. 
I McGowtv. 500. 
j MoKnight, 686. 
j McKown, 48'"i. 
McLarran, 312. 
I McMahon, 687. 
McNamara. 693. 
1 McSorlev.687. 

I McVay, 687. „ „„ 

Meach, (Meech,) 236, 407, 2o, 80 

501, 62 ; 648, 71, 2, 
Meachum,^338, 
' Meany, 687. 

Meeks, (Mi.t,) 153, 248, 53, 
Meieser. 687. 

Merrick, 83, 4, 99, 210, 36. 
Merwin, 656, 68, 79. 
Metcalf, 162, 236, 9 ; 429. 
Millard. 229, 
MUler, 198, 687. 



Milroy, 669, 72, 

Mills, 469. 

Minor, 56, 71, 89, 110, 12 ; 212, 

64, 78 ; 384, 99 ; 506, 12, 92 ; 

632, 67. 
Mitchell, 25, 535, 54, 6, 7, 86 ; 

604, 24, 53, 67, 93, 
Molton, 344. 
Monroe, 566, 6.58, 93, 
Moore, 136, 79 ; 236, 380, 405, 11, 

18, 92 ; 636, 63, 5, 79. 
Morgan, 126, 236. 45, 8, 54, 5 ; 

307, 61, 84; 443, 56, 7, 97; 

632, 3, 47. 
Morningham, 687, 
Morrison,228, 668, 9. 
Morse, 542. 
Mortimer, 493, 4. 
Moseley, 236, 7. 
Mott, 313, 81 ; 425, .5.39, 687. 
Mowry, 350, 559, 622, 
Mulligan. 687, 
Mumford, 399, 407, 56, 87; 536, 

638. 
Munsell, 237, 481, 9, 90, 8. 
Munson, 133. 
Murdock, 4.35, .544, -63. 
Murphy, 643, 87. 
Murray, 470, 2-4. ; 552, 3 ; 600,4, 

58, 
Muzzy, 601. 
Myer, 690. 



Neale, 601. 

Needham. 673, 

Nelson, 259, 439. 42^, 59 ; 659. 

Nevius, 351, 2 ; 376, 8, 80, 1 ; 422, 

2 ; 551, 60. 
Newell. 193. 
Newton, 558. 
Nichols, 272, 647, 69, 78. 
Nickels, 668, 87. 
Nickerson, 667, 88. 
Niles, 470-3, 77 ; 607. 
Norman, 2.37, 303, 467, 552. 
Norton, 269, 642, 3, 51. 
Nott, 592. 
Noye8,389,688. 

Odiorne, 604. 

0"Donuell, 693, „ ^n a 

Olmstead, (Holmstead.) 53,60-4, 

84,6,91, 132, 67, 92, 3; 203, 

634, 
Olmsby, (Ormsby.) 23/, 3*8. 
Orleans, 394, 
Osborne, 688. 
Osgood, 638, 48. 

Otis, 21, 312, 556, 77,8; 640,88. 
Owen, 316- 

Packer, 601. _ ^^^ ^^ 

Paddock, 4.56, 7 ; 54j , 605, 45. 
Pace 372. 
Palmer, 259, 312, 80 ; 500, 5, 99 ; 

600, 68, 9. 
Palmeter, 222, .37, 
Parish, 249, 344. 

Parke, (Parks,) 83. 156, 209, 45, 

8,9 51,4,5; 405,6.3,78; 690. 

Parker, 53, 399, 403, 4, 78, 86, 91 ; 

679. 
Parkerson, 688. 
I Parlin, 689. 
I Parsons, 316^ 18, 81. 

Pasmore, 287. 

Pasmoth. 103. 

Patten, 361, 2. 

Patterson, 661. 

Paulin, 644. 

Payne, 138, 498, 646, 66. 

Peabodv, 311, 99 ; 538. 

Peake, 227. 



INDEX OP NAMES. 



703 



Peale, 656, 8, 60, 8-70, 8, 9. 

Pearce, 623. 

Pease, 61, 6 ; 72. 87, 193, 4. 

Peck, 92, 146, 237. 359, 60, 8, 83, 
4, M ; 512, 50, 86, 92 ; 642. 

Pember, 238. 

Pepper, 575. 

Percy, 197. 

Perigo, 199. 

Pent, 511.44. 

Perkins, 128, G8 ; 209, 21, 57, 8, 
60,74.81,94,9: 310,28,44,9, 
67; 378,82.4,6,9,90,9; 406, 
8, 16, 24, 8. 9, 39. 40, 3, 4, 9, 
63, 78, 9. 82, 3, 6-8, 91, 4 ; 502, 

8, 6, 8. 33. 4, 6, 45, 52, 3.6. r..3, 

9. 75-9. 80, 6, 91, 5. 6; 618,26, 
7, 33. 4. 6. 40, 3, 6-51, 93. 

Perrv, 561. 2, 84, 91. 

Peters, 33. 42, 3, 8 ; 381, 406, 25, 

6, 71 ; 539. 
Petti-s 238. 99. 
Phillips, 102, 229, 38 ; 379, 410, 

672, 3. 
Phinney. 444, 071. 
Piatt. 674. 
Pico, 494. 
Pierce, 97, 238, 463, 78, 93, 4 ; 512, 

602, 21. 
Pierson, 181. 
Pike, 23S. 
Pincknev, 6-31. 
Pitcher, 238. 
Piatt, 291, 583. 
Plumbe, 254. 
Poinsett, 585. 
Pope, 160. 
Polk, 6:31. 
Pollard. 488. 
Polly, 238. 
Pomeroy, 316. 
Pooler, 579. 

Porter. 228, 461, 560, 99 ; 669. 
Post, 53, 60, 1. 5, 6, 66 ; 74, 6 : 

83-5 ; 97, 130, 4, 5, 58, 62, 77, 

86,93,5,6,8; 205,9: 227,33, 

9, 56, 64, 7, 8, 81 ; 472, 503. 
Potter, 688. 
Powers. 441. 539. 
Pratt, 159, 166. 
Prentice, 629, SO, 50. 
Pride, 204. 400, 48, 78. 87, 97. 
I'rior. 2.38, 308, 424, 64. 
Proctor, 241. 
Pulaski. 393. 
Pundt^rsou. 370, 1, 7; 451-3,8; 

543, 
Putnam.370, 6, 7, 81, 8. 
Pygan, 100. 
Pyucheon, 106, 7. 

Quincev, 379. 
Quy, 331. 

Kaffles,"491. 

Hansom. 504. 

Rathbone, 2.'i9. 

Kaymond. 175, 99 ; 223, 38, 46 ; 

529, tW\ yi. 
^Jlead, (Keed,i 62, 5 ; 83, 197,257, 

8,81,7: 344, .51; 407,67. 
Eeynolds. 61, 5, 8; 74. 86, 99, 

101. 9, 35, 58, 73, 95, 7, 8 : 230, 

43, 72, 81, 7; 302, 22, 4. m; 

472, 3, 98 ; 505, 33, 6, 9 ; 619, 

88 
Richards, 114, 60 ; 238, 49, 52 ; 

3.'j9, 407. 639, 650. 
Richardson, 87, 8 ; 673. 
Rigaud, 525. 
Ripley, 173. 4 ; 411, 65, 82, 3 ; 

645, 69 ; 632, 8, 9, 42, 59, 66, 

7, 9, 79. 



Rising, 600. 
Rives, 620. 
Roath, 223, 43, 9, 53 ; 304, 49, 50 ; 

448, 63, 7, 78, 87, 8, 99 ; 501, 

56, 75, 96 : 675. 
Robbins, 548. 
Roberts, 93, 171, 238, 9; 524, 

624. 
Robertson, 357, 61-4, 84, 5 : 580. 
Robinson, 249, 350, 505, 46, 66, 

76, 81, 4 : 643. 
Rockwell, 73, 97, 109, 68, 81 ; 243, 

4,6,9,50,3; 309,50,4; 4i:>3, 

88, 91 ; 536, 7, 9. 45, 66, 63, 8, 

75, 6, 88, 91, 5 ; 619, 27, 9, 31, 

44, 7, 9, 50, 62, 8, 73, 4. 
Rodgers, 386. 
Rodman, 396, 7, 9 ; 510. 
Rogers, 125, 239, 90, 2 ; 310, 25, 

59, 74, 8, 82, 3, 96, 7, 9 ; 422, 8, 

49 ; 510, 11. 19, 35, 63, 98 ; 622, 

3, as, 64, 72, 3. 
Rome, 388. 
Rood. (Rude,) 102, 239. 45, 50, 4, 

8, 71, 2 ; 304. 
Rose, 59, 134, 56 ; 250, 4 ; 399, 

406, 49. 
Rosebrough. 239. 
Rosevelt, 287. 
Rosenblatt, 658. 
Ross, 673, 9. 
RoBsiter, 493. 
Royce, 61, 6 ; 73, 4 ; 86, 132, 6, 

72. 99 ; 205, 219. 
Rudd, 53. 164, 5, 95 ; 209, 39. 40, 

2, 51, 4, 81, 4 ; 429, 30 ; 580, 

640. 
Russ. 542. 
RusseU, 272, 607. 

Sabin, 240, 78 ; 323, 634. 
Safford, 25*, 9, 60 ; 344. 60. 96 ; 

624. 
Salter, 437. 

SaltonstaU, 286, 377, 404. 
Sanders, 693. 
Sangar, 481, 96 ; 539. 
Satterlee, 498. 
Sawyer, 666, 658. 
Saxton, 249. 
Say & Seal, 51. 
Scarborough, 549. 
Schalk, 668, 88. 
Schenck, 672. 

Scholfield, 449, 664, 667. 79, 89. 
Schuyler, 402. 
Scott, ti61, 74. 81. 
Scudder, 173, 217. 19. 
Seabury, 4.53, 5 ; 524. 
Selden. 431, 524, 660, 71, 2. 
Seymour, 664, 
Sliaw, 306, 32 ; 553. 
Shea, G89. 

Sherman, 517, 661, 2, 89. 
Shipman, .37, 8: 190, 449, 50, 

61-4 ; 560, 8, 85, 6 ; 608, 33. 
Shippen, 414. 
Sigourney, 252, 327, 544, 7 ; 626, 

44. 
Simpson, 390, 689. 
Skinner, 578, 96. 
Slater, 449, 60 ; 537, 60 ; 020. 
Sluraan, 83, 168. 72 ; 203, 9, 10, 

40. 
Smallbetit, 240. 
Smith, 01, 6 ; 86, 132. 68. 70. 99 ; 

200, 10. 11. 54. 7. 81, 92. 8 ; 321, 

7 ; 403, 12, 63, 4, 82, 94, 7, 9 ; 

501. 41, 6, 50, 0, 82, 92 ; 620, 2, 

48. 51, 4, 75. 
Snow, 492, .5tj3, 86 ; 640. 
Souter, 089. 



Spalding, 240, 518-20; 614, 36, 

56,74. 
Sparrow, 499. 
Spofford, 664. 
Spencer, 159. 
Spicer, ijl, 619. 
Spiller, 229. 
Spooner, 361, 4, 84. 
Sprague, 446. 6. 70. 
Standish, 172, 246, 51, 5. 
Stanley. 671. 
Stanton, 87. 151, 245, 54, 6 ; 402, 

49, 89 ; 558, 660, 71, 2, 89. 
Stark. 584. 

Starkweather, 251, 694, 678, 
Starr, 97, 240, 4 ; 384, 608 
Stedman, 307, 50; 576, 83, 9; 

632. 67. 
Steele, 170, 645. 
Stephens, (Stevens.) 22, 259, 383, 

400. 
Sterrett, 689. 
Sterry, 22, 348, 514, 26, 43, 56, 

86, 99 ; 644. 
Steuben, 393. 
Stewart, 477, 88. 
Sticknev,240. 
Stoddard, 137, 74 ; 201, 40, 86 ; 

528. 
Stokes, 689. 

Stone. 123. 48 ; 444.586. 
Storrs. 558,640. 
Story, 241, 73; 321, 4, 47; 467, 

538, 96, 8 ; 663. 
Stoughton, 180. 
Stratford, S25. 
Strong. 2m. .324, 34, 6, 8, 9, -i !, 

2. 60, 94; 416, 37, 59, 68, •.■.. 

83 ; 512, 25, 8, 44, 60, 91 ; 6 ; 

1, 48, 93. 
Styles, 50. 155. 
Sullivan. 422. 
Swain, 490. 
Swan, 447, 601. 
Sweet. 679. 
Swetland. 241. 
Syke.«, 582. 
Sylvester, 173. 

Taft, 621. 

Taintor, 646. 

Talcott, 110-12, 16 ; 327, 84. 

Talleyrand, 394. 

Tarbox, 446. 

Taylor, 151. 3-5; 337, 555, ^.. : 

622, 89. 
Teel, 535. 
Tennant, .316. 
Tenny, 241. 
Ttrrv, 527. 
TliBtcher, 405. 
Thayer, 472. 
Thomas, 196, 241, 383, 487, 511, 

71,95; 637. 93. 
Thompson, 57. •>89. 
Throop. 318, 21, 81; 422, 5,34,5, 

61 ; 608. 
Thurber, 622, 45. 
Tibbitts, 5<>4. 

Tiffany. .310, 461, 2. 5 ; 668, 79. 
Tilden, 6.-^9. 
Tiltou, 229. 
Tinker, 4H4. 
Tisdale, 337, 4.58, 501, 615, 36, 89, 

92. ' > I I J 

Todd, 241. - 
Tomlinsou, 6,'»9, 
Tompkins, 617. 
Torrance. 67^, 89. 
Torrey, 678. 
Toucey, lOii. 
Touissant, 497, 525. 
Tousland, 53. 



704 



INDEX OP NAMES. 



Touzain, 636. 

Town, 690. 

Townsend, 884. 

Tozor, 635. 

Tracy, 27, 43. 53 8 ; 61, 2, 4, 6 ; 
73, 83-9 ; 95, 100, 20. 6, 32-5, 
51, 8-60, 9, 72, 7, 85, 91 ; 200-6, 
236, 40, 43-5, 52, 4-6, 62, 3, 
71-4, S3, 7, 8, 96 ; 304, 5. 7, 14, 
21. .38. 44, 5, 52, 8, 67, 78, 82, 
3, 96, 9 ; 411, 24, 7 ; 428, 9, 39, 
40, 52, 4, 62, 3, 78, 87, 8, 95, 6 ; 
502-6, 10 13, 19, 26, 44, 7, 63. 
6, 80, 6, 92, 4 ; 615,32, 4-7,46;- 
8, 9, 71, 90. 

Trapp, 280, 378, 461, 3, 4. 

Treadway, 673, 690. 

Treat, 107-10, 12, 35 ; 249, 54. 

Trench, 583. 

Trott, 506, G3-'i. , 

TruesdeU, a50. "^ 

Truman, 448. 619. 

Trumbull, 31, 5 7 ; 40. 3, 8 ; 60, 
275, 312, 25, 6, 57, 63, 4, 73, 4, 
80,3.4, 7, 91. 3; 402, 18-20, 
49, 63, 4, 74 ; 501, 14, 77, 80, 
96 ; 629, 32, 9, 46. 

Truxton. 497. 

Tryon, 477, 99. 

Tubbs, 241, 668. 

TuUy, 444. 

Turner. 66, 206, 74 ; 307, 13, 59, 
81-4 ; 426, 7 ; 515, VI ; 636. 

Tuttle 4-39. 

Tyler, 2.52, 380, 2 : 425, 49. 53-9, 
73, 4, 524. 5, 9, 38, 47, 53, 6, 
63. S5 ; 638, 40, 2, 50, 6 1 657, 
8, 73, 8, 9, 90. 

UreTine,288. 

\- •.'], 477, 531, 83 ; 605. 
Va^i Buren, 585. 
^'ei 'asdu, 6?(i. 
T.-iMtt, 512, 13, 37. 
T U' -ent, 196, 
-V , ; iner, 690. 

V- .V klev, 206. 

V-.ide, 61, 6 ; 86. 102, .36 : 205. 

VVadsworth, 169; 267, 418, 77. 

U'ait, 6.33, 47, 64, 81, 90. 

W'^ilden, 457. 

U -do, 642. 

^vvber, 241, 622. 



Wales, 465. 

Wallbridge, 258, 72. 

Waller, 53. 

Wallis, 62, 5. 

Walton, 344. 

Walworth, 189, 499. 

Ward, 468, 86 ; 649, 58, 63-6, 81, 

91,2. 
Warham, 40, 1. 
Warner, 546. 
Warren, 241, 374, 5, 87 ; 458, 64 ; 

536. 
Warwick, 51. 
. Washington, 382, 7, 91, 3 ; 402, 

20, 77 ; 525, 38. 
■\\"a.terhouse, 292. 
Waterman, 62, 5 ; 84, 6 ; 95, 100, 

29, 34, 5, 57, 68 ; 201, 2, 6-8, 

.5S, 9, 71,5,9,80,97; 306," 10, 

5i; 82, 3, 99 ; 400, 9, 24, 9, .35, 

8.60,2,4,7,93; 505,10,11. 
Waters, 2a5. 
Wattles, 406, 7, 58, 94. 
Way, 241. 
Weaver, 93. 

Webb, 422, 88, 94, 6, 8 ; 582. 
Webster, 547, 86 ; 676. 
AVcdge, 2.52. 501. 
Welden, 69l. 
Weller, 611. 
Wellman, 179. 
Wells, 683. 
Welsh, 241. 
Wentworth, 2-30, 52, 80, 98 ; 327, 

560, 92 ; 614. 
Wetherell, 87, 90, 219. 
Wetmore, 25, 311, 12, 87; 417, 

60, 4, 7 ; 652. 
West, 598. 
Weston, 622. 

Wieat, 378, 82, 3, 99 ; 400, 634, 5- 
Wheatlev, 360. 
AVhee'.er. 278, 667. 
\Theelock, 182, 220, 316, 461, 4 ; 

590. 
Wuipple, 458. 
Whitaker, 242. 460-7 ; 557. 
Whitcoi.ie, 605. 
White, 189, 224, 41; &33, 493, 

541. 648, 50, 92. • 
Whitefield, 1.52, 321. 
Whiting, 149, 51: 292, 313, 15, 
47, 50. 67, 86; 428, 55, 88; 535, 
42 ; 66, 75, 6 ; 601, 47. I 

Whitman, 558. I 



Wliitmarsh, 399. 

Whitney, 305, 462, 4, 7. 

Whittemore, ( Whitmore, ) 236, 
650. 

Whittle.sey, 607. 

Wight, .317, 82 ; 447, 8, 59. 61, 7. 

Wightmaii, 242. 

Wilber, 636. 692. 

Wilkes, 868, 421. 

Wiilard, 287. 

Willes, 274, 430. 

Willett, 404, 538, 95 ; 619. 

Williams, 242, 9, 52, 3, 4, 73, 91, 
305. .38, 47, .59, 77, 81, 99 ; 416, 
48, 51, '69, 76, 8, 9, 84, 8, 92, 8, 
9 ; 508, 27, 3-3-6, 44-9, ,53, 64, 
75,89,91,7; 604,11.15,30,3, 
40-2, 6, 8, 9, 50. 62, 78, 92. 

Wilhama, Uoger, 44, 7-9, (8 ; 145, 
52. 

Willoughby, 242, 321, 2 : 539, 
66. 

Wilson, 252, 449. 

Winchester, 474. 97, 9 ; 524. . 

Winship, 280, 692. 

Winslow, 204, .389, 511, 91 ; 693. 

Winthrop, .30, 3, 5, 8 ; 41 3, 7, 8 ; 
51, 97, 106, 7, 12, 42, 5, 64, 71, 
4; 211. 

Wise, 286. 

Wiswall, 170. 

Witter, 253, 841, 78. 99 ; 510, 45. 

Woicott, 86, 419. 517. 

Wood, 229, 42 ; 455, 667, 92. ' 

Woodbridge, 160, .312, 38, 83, 97. 
9 ; 431, 8.3, 92, 4 ; ,505. 7, 12, 19, 
26,3 5,7,41,4,93; 632,40,6. 

Woodbury, 585. 

Woodward, 128, 62 ; 217, 46, 9, 
53, 8, 9, 85, 6, 7 ; 304, 59 ; 506, 
10, 11. 

Woodworth, 242, 6, 98 ; 435, 559. 

Wooster, 416. 

Wordeu. 6,-:i. 

WoT'.h, 223. 

Worthington. 2.:.' 60; 636. 

Wright, 449, 551, ou. 

Wyatt, 508. 

Wyllis, 77, 86, 114, 55 ; &37. 

Tarrington, 602. 
Yeomans. ■i25. 
Young, 58-3, 8, 95 : 656. 

Zsjnphiropolos, 075. 



NAMES OF INDIANS 



Abimeleeh,2e5. 
Apenannesuck, 279. 
Ashpow, 405. 
Attawanhood. 57, 8 ; 264. 

Caesar, 263, 5. 
Cauonchet, 110. 
Canonic\is, 33. 
Cutoih, 260. 

Mahomet, 260. 
Ma«zeeu, 265. 

Miantonomoh, 30 42, 5 ; 110, 117, 
586. 

Nunrod, F6. 
Ninigret, 142. 

Occom, (Aukum,)49,2G0,9; 361, 
463, 4, 5. 



Oknookertukogog, 373. 

Owaneco. (Oneco,)49, ,57-9, 105, 
6. 15, .36, 7, 51, 66 ; 227, 43, 4, 
7,51,2,5,6,7,60,1,4,5. 

Pasqviatuck, 29. 

Pauganeek, 260. 

Pessacus, 39, 42, 5. 

Philip, 63, 5, 6 ; 89, 105-7, 11-13, 

23, 90. 

Quocheets, 405. 

Sassacus, 30. 
Seqtiassen, 31. 
Sunkesquaw, 111. 

Tantaquiesen, ( Tantaquidgln, ) 

3;3, 42. 
Toroso, 338. 



Trowtrow, 330. 

Uncas, 28-46, 9 : 54-9 ; 73, 81, 
105, 7, 9, 13-18, 45, 61, 89; 
243. 56, 60-6 : 406, 585-7. 

Uncas, Ann, .358; Ben., 260, 3; 
.}ohn, 2,55, 65); Joshua, 107, 
36 ; Josiah, 59, 137 . Samuel, 
263,586, 7. 

Waweequaw, (Waweekus, Wte- 

quaw,) 57. 81, 452. 
Wedeuiow, 260. 
Woouanshun, 106. 
Wyox, 405. 

Zachary, 379. 



